Ukrainian strikes hit shopping centre in Donetsk; seven hurt

Moscow, August 16

A series of Ukrainian strikes wounded at least seven people and set a shopping centre ablaze in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the top Russian official in the region said. “Since 12 noon today, the enemy has been carrying out targeted massive strikes on the Petrovsky district of the regional capital,” Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor, posted on Telegram.

“According to preliminary information, seven civilians, including a teenager, were wounded. Data on the injured continue to come in,” the governor added. He did not mention any fatalities. State news agency TASS earlier cited local authorities as saying at least two people were killed in the shelling of a shopping centre, but there was no confirmation.

Pushilin said the “Galaktika” shopping centre was engulfed in a fire of over 10,000 square metres (108,000 square feet) as a result of the attack and that authorities were still working to extinguish the blaze. Part of a local hospital was also damaged, he said. The RIA news agency published video of huge clouds of smoke rising from what it said was the shopping centre. Kremlin accuses West of helping Ukraine attack Russia

Meanwhile, an influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West and the US-led NATO alliance had helped to plan Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region, something Washington has denied.

The lightning incursion, the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War Two, unfurled on August 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed Russia’s western border in a major embarrassment for Putin’s military. “The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services,” influential veteran Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev said. — Reuters

Kyiv urges civilians to evacuate Pokrovsk

Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Friday urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army was quickly closing in on the town. AP