At least six people have been killed and eight others injured in a Russian shelling in the center of Kostyantynivka, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities have reported. The invading army has massively bombarded the city with multiple rocket launchers, cluster munitions and missiles.
As a result of the attack, 16 apartment buildings, eight private houses, a kindergarten, the Kostyantynivka State Tax Inspectorate building, gas pipelines and three cars have been damaged. Rescue teams and police are working at the scene.
The Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, home to 70,000 people before the war, is 20 kilometers west of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting for the past eight months as the Russian army has tried to seize control of the city. . "The Russians have massively bombarded the city of Kostiantynivka," explained Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, on the Telegram application, while adding photos in which it can be seen how the bombardments have partially destroyed several buildings and have left craters.
The attack coincides with the first anniversary of the discovery of the bodies of murdered civilians in Bucha, a city that has become a symbol of the atrocities committed by the Russians. On the occasion of this anniversary, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has taken the opportunity to praise the Ukrainian resistance against "the greatest force against humanity of our time", he declared. For its part, Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the massacre.
A commemoration that takes place the day after Russia assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, a responsibility that it will occupy for a month and that is fundamentally ceremonial, but that has angered the Ukrainian government. "We will liberate all our lands. We will put the Ukrainian flag back in all our cities and towns," Zelensky said. Russia still controls more than 18% of the Ukrainian territory.
