This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential press service on September 4, 2023, shows President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky visiting the command post of the operational-tactical group “Donetsk” in Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine/AFPPix: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday a Russian strike on a market in east Ukraine had killed more than a dozen people and wounded more, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Kyiv.
“At this moment, the artillery of Russian terrorists has killed 16 people in the city of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong. Many wounded,“ Zelensky said in a post on social media. Prime Minister Denys Shmygal posted security camera footage of a blast tearing into rows of kiosks, sending residents running for cover and sending off car alarms.Ukraine’s interior ministry Igor Klymenko said in a post on social media that the strike had left 28 people injured.
Kostyantynivka is a frontline town of an estimated 70,000 people in the eastern industrial region of Donetsk, which has been the epicentre of fighting since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. Dontetsk has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014 and Russia claimed to have annexed the region alongside three others late last year. -