Explosions were reported in the center of Donetsk, a Ukrainian city in eastern Ukraine that has been occupied by Russian forces and their proxies since 2014, on Dec. 9, according to Suspilne, a Ukrainian public broadcaster.
Alexey Kulemzin, the leader of Moscow-installed proxies in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, said that the city had been shelled on Dec. 9. A swimming pool, a hotel, a sports complex, a shop, and an administrative building of the local Russian proxies were damaged due to alleged attacks, according to Kulemzin. The proxy blamed the Ukrainian military for the strikes. Kyiv has not commented on the allegations.
Oleksiy Melnyk, a military expert at Ukrainian Razumkov Center, previously told Suspilne that Russian proxies’ reports of Ukrainian armed forces targeting civilians are a provocation.
“The goal of the Russian occupiers is to turn the local population against the Ukrainian military,” said Melnyk.
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