“The Russian-controlled city authorities announced the attack on the Armed Forces of Ukraine with HIMARS missiles. The Ukrainian side has not yet commented on the shelling”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Reports of explosions in the area of Shakhtarska Square – the center of Donetsk – appeared around 8 am on January 10. In the photo and video, you can see a hole in the asphalt, a damaged supermarket building with broken windows, as well as in several neighboring buildings, burnt cars.
Consequences of the shelling of occupied Donetsk, January 10, 2025
“Moloko” supermarket after shelling of occupied Donetsk, January 10, 2025
The Russian mass media, the occupation administration controlled by the Russian Federation, and pro-Russian sources in the city immediately began to write about the allegedly targeted attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the “Moloko” supermarket. And in a few minutes – to claim that it was inflicted with HIMARS MLRS. The reported number of victims varied, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported 2 dead and 2 injured, the latest message from the leader of the DPR group said 2 injured.
The editors cannot independently verify the reported data.
Sources of the “Ostrov” publication in Donetsk claim that they heard six explosions and observed the work of Russian air defense. And Donetsk Telegram channels report the destruction of the “Baikal enterprise” near the supermarket. In the tax database of the “DNR” group, the type of its activity is “mechanical processing of metal products”, which may indicate the military orientation of the enterprise’s work.
Also, as the publication notes, the “Yuzhnyigiprogaz” institute, which specializes in servicing Russian gas processing plants, and the development of gas and oil fields, is located near the summer market.
“It should be noted that during this week, the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out a series of strikes on objects captured by the Russian invaders in the Donetsk region. At the same time, all necessary measures were taken in order to avoid the risk to the civilian population,” the agency said.
The message did not mention Donetsk. This city is located about 90 kilometers from Svitlodarsk.
Donbas Realia (Radio Liberty project) wrote a lot about the placement of firing points of the Russian army on the territory of the city itself or in the suburbs of Donetsk: from there, for the entire 9 years of the war in Donbas, fire was carried out on the cities near the contact line – Mariintsi, Krasnohorivtsi, Avdiivtsi. Already during the large-scale invasion, in 2023, Russian troops launched direct ground attacks from Donetsk on the Avdiivsk industrial zone and Maryinka.
There were also previously recorded cases when the Russian-controlled administration of Donetsk passed off Ukrainian shelling of the city as strikes that were actually carried out from the occupied territory. The most famous such case is the mortar shelling of a trolleybus in the Bosse neighborhood on January 22, 2015, when one pro-Russian group struck another (the range of the mortar precluded shelling from the territory controlled by Ukraine). Or, for example, Donbas Realia talked about the attack by Russian groups on Ukrainian positions on April 16, 2021, which was passed off as propaganda for the Ukrainian attack on Yasynuvata, taking advantage of the fact that the explosion could be clearly heard in the city.
Experts recorded such self-fires and subsequently. According to Denis Kazanskyi, a journalist from Donetsk, along with targeted strikes by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on military facilities of the Russian Federation, there are also certain chaotic shellings of the city, which are obviously not conducted where there are military targets. The journalist assumes that the Russian troops are trying to accompany the Ukrainian shelling with additional strikes on civilians in order to create the impression that the work of the Ukrainian military is not aimed.
Kazansky published several such examples on his Telegram channel, in particular, videos from townspeople, on which it was recorded that the shelling was carried out practically from the territory of Donetsk itself, that is, the territory controlled by the Russian army. He explains: “There you can immediately hear the sound of a shot, which would not be heard from the front line in the center of the city. And literally in two seconds – the flight has already arrived. This means that they are shooting very close and not from the territory controlled by the Ukrainian army.”
Another factor that can distort information about shelling is Russia’s active use of air defense over Donetsk. Because of this, it is impossible to understand what was the original purpose of the projectiles: after all, the shot down ammunition falls in different parts of the city. The work of anti-aircraft missiles of the Russian Federation is often filmed by the residents of Donetsk.
The occupation administration of Donetsk does not comment on evidence that the missiles were shot down by Russian air defense or launched from the occupied territory. She calls all cases Ukrainian shelling and claims that Kyiv is purposefully shelling civilians in Donetsk. There are also no other data on civilian casualties, except for reports from the Russian side, so journalists are forced to refer to administrations controlled by Russia.