Ukrainian military shelled the Leninsky district of Donetsk. RIA Novosti and Izvestia write about this with reference to their correspondents. Information about the shelling is also published by the Telegram channel “Typical Donetsk” and pro-government blogger Semyon Pegov (WarGonzo).
RIA Novosti, citing a representative of the JCCC, writes that the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system was used in the attack — according to According to the agency, at least one person was killed and four were injured. At the same time, the Readovka telegram channel reports five dead and six injured.
Later, the head of the self-proclaimed DPR Denis Pushilin posted a post on his Telegram channel — according to him, three residents of Donetsk were killed due to the shelling, eight people were injured — one of them a child. A few hours later, a ninth victim was reported.
According to WarGonzo, the blow hit the gathering place of participants in a rally organized in honor of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the self-proclaimed DPR. According to Pegov, the explosion occurred at a time when the cars were ready to start, but after that the rally was decided to be canceled due to the risks of repeated shelling. The Typical Donetsk telegram channel reports that the local Paradise restaurant was damaged as a result of the attack.
A few hours before the shelling of Donetsk, a message from Vladimir Putin was published on the Kremlin website, in which he congratulates the residents of the self-proclaimed DPR on the anniversary of the creation of the republic. “I am confident that together we will definitely achieve success, bring peace back to Donetsk soil, and solve the most difficult problems,” the congratulatory message says. On May 11, 2014, pro-Russian separatists in part of the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine held “referendums on self-determination” of the LPR and DPR.
Updated at 15:15 and 17:45 . New information has been added about the dead and wounded.