At least 25 killed as Ukraine strikes busy market in Russian-held Donetsk

Images taken at the scene showed crying people and bodies lying on blood-soaked snow near one of the city's markets.

Shattered storefronts and broken glass could be seen in videos shared by Russian state media, along with what appeared to be bodies lying on the ground nearby. Source: Getty / STRINGER/AFP

Key Points

• The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement calling the attack "a barbaric act of terrorism".
• Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine's east and south that Russia claimed to have annexed in late 2022.
• Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.

Twenty-five people were killed and 20 injured when Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region, says.

According to Alexei Kulemzin, the city's Russian-installed mayor, Ukrainian forces bombarded a busy area where shops and a market are located. Pushilin said the city was shelled by Ukrainian artillery on Sunday. There was no immediate Ukrainian comment.

Reuters photographs and video taken at the scene showed crying people, some of whom said they had lost their relatives, and bodies lying on blood-soaked snow near one of the city's markets.

A woman was seen crying following the attack on a food market in Donetsk. Source: EPA / Alessandro Guerra

Pushilin said emergency services were working at the scene and that forensic specialists were trying to collect fragments of the weapons used in the attack.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement calling the attack "a barbaric act of terrorism" committed by Ukraine, saying it was carried out "with the use of weapons supplied by the West".

"The Russian side categorically condemns this treacherous strike against the civilian population," the ministry said.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attack.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago, has voiced outrage in the past when Ukrainian attacks have killed civilians in Donetsk and other areas. Russia's own campaign of air strikes and heavy shelling, however, has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians.

Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine's east and south that Russia claimed to have annexed in late 2022 in a move condemned as illegal by most countries at the UN General Assembly. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.

Separately on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said Russian forces had taken control of the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.

A Ukrainian military spokesman confirmed that Kyiv's forces had withdrawn from the area, but said the lost territory was tiny and of no consequence for the overall military situation.