Shelling at a market on the outer limits of the Moscow-occupied city of Donetsk in Ukraine on Sunday, January 21, killed at least 25 individuals, according to local authorities.
The attack on Tekstilshchik neighborhood injured 20 more, including two children, as per Donetsk's head of the Russian-installed authorities, Denis Pushilin. The Ukrainian military, he alleged, was responsible for the tragedy, which The Associated Press was unable to confirm independently.
Artillery munitions of 155 mm and 152 mm caliber were fired into the region from the west, towards Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka, according to Pushilin. On top of that, he verified that rescue workers were still on the site.
Following the incident, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement describing it as a terrorist attack, blaming it on Ukraine. It claimed that the terrorist assaults by the Kyiv administration show that they are not committed to ending the conflict via diplomatic methods and establishing peace.
Another Ukrainian Attack
Earlier, local authorities reported that two explosions had caused a fire to break out at a chemical shipping terminal at the Ust-Luga port in Russia. An explosion in a gas tank was reportedly caused by a strike on the port by Ukrainian drones. Situated 165 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg, the fire broke out at a Novatek facility, a major natural gas producer in Russia.
Novatek issued a statement explaining that operations had been temporarily suspended after the incident, which was caused by "external influence." It added: "The technological process at Novatek-Ust-Luga has been stopped, and an operational headquarters has been established to eliminate the consequences. Damage assessment will be carried out later," as reported by Reuters.
The head of Russia's Kingisepp district, Yuri Zapalatsky, issued a statement stating that no casualties had occurred but that the region had been put on high alert. According to news outlet Fontanka, two drones were seen en route to St. Petersburg on Sunday morning, but they were subsequently rerouted to the Kingisepp neighborhood.
Nevertheless, Russian defense officials did not mention any drone activity near Kingisepp in their daily briefing. Two further drones were reportedly shot down in the Tula and Oryol districts, while four were shot down in the Smolensk region of Russia.
Bombarding Targets
Recent Russian strikes on Ukraine have seemed to target air defense systems in an apparent attempt to overwhelm them by launching a barrage of missiles of different sorts in an apparent search for vulnerabilities.
The armament stockpiles of Ukraine are being depleted as a result of the enormous bombardments. In fact, more than 500 missiles and drones were launched between December 29, 2023, and Jan. 2, as reported by The Associated Press, citing the authorities in Kyiv.
