Ukraine denies responsibility after 27 killed in shelling at market in Russia-occupied Donetsk

Kyiv says Russia will have to be held accountable for lives of Ukrainians that were taken

Ukraine has denied responsibility for the deaths of 27 people due to heavy shelling in a market in Russia-held Donetsk.

At least 27 people were killed and 25 others were injured in the shelling, according to the Russia-appointed head of the occupied Donetsk region Denis Pushilin, who blamed the attack on Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky did not directly address who was behind the strike on Donetsk city in his nightly video address, but called the fighting in the region “particularly severe” as he described the targets of Russian shelling.

“On this day alone, Russian savages shelled more than a hundred cities, towns, and our Ukrainian villages in nine regions: from Chernihiv and Sumy to Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad. The most brutal Russian attacks were in Donetsk region. Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead,” he said.

The city’s Russia-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin accused Ukrainian forces of bombarding a busy area where shops and markets were located.

However, Ukraine’s forces operating in the southern zone Tavria said that soldiers under its command were not responsible.

“Russians are spreading information about a strike on the market in Donetsk. We responsibly declare that the forces under the control of the Tavria military unit did not engage in combat operations in this case,” it said in a statement on Facebook, proclaiming that “Donetsk is Ukraine”.

“Russia will have to be held accountable for the lives of Ukrainians that were taken," the defence forces in Tavria said.

Mr Pushilin announced a day of mourning in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the name used by Russia to refer to the region after annexing it.

Photos and videos of the shelling attack showed widespread destruction and bereaved people crying as some of them said they had lost relatives. Other photos showed dead bodies on blood-soaked snow near one of the city’s markets. These reports were carried by Russian media and could not be independently verified.

Mr Zelensky said: “Russia will be held accountable for all this terror – it must be. If it hadn’t been for Moscow’s decisions to start this aggression and this terror, thousands and thousands of people would be alive today.”

Russia’s foreign ministry said the attack was "a barbaric act of terrorism" by Ukraine that was carried out "with the use of weapons supplied by the West".

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

Located to the southeast of Ukraine near the border shared with Russia, the separatist-held Donetsk region is one of four territories claimed by Russia. Its attempt to annex the region was termed illegal by most countries at the UN General Assembly in 2022 after Vladimir Putin’s forces staged a deeply flawed referendum in the occupied territories.