A series of deadly blasts, attributed by Russian-backed separatist authorities in the occupied city of Donetsk to "punitive Ukrainian shelling" have left at least 13 people dead several others wounded.
Alexei Kulemzin, the city's Russian-backed mayor, made the remarks following the blasts. Ukrainian authorities did not offer any comment.
Donetsk, a city of nearly a million people, has been under the control of Russian-backed rebels since 2014, following the Euromaidan Revolution.
While the claims cannot be independently verified, the rebels claimed that 9 155mm artillery shells struck the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk, having been fired from a village to the west of the city.
Ukraine was accused of 'deliberately' targeting civilians by aiming its fire at a bus stop, a shop, and a bank by local separatist leader Denis Pushilin.
During their Eastern Ukraine campaign following the invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces experienced some successes -- they managed to capture all of Luhansk oblast in the northern part of the Donbas region, and notched up successes with their capture of Mariupol in the southern part of the Donetsk oblast, cutting off Ukraine's access to the Sea of Azov and managing to establish a land bridge to Russian-held Crimea.
However, they have struggled to push Ukrainian forces back from the city of Donetsk itself, and much of the province remains in Ukrainian hands. The city thus remains vulnerable to artillery fire.
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