In two days, the Ukrainian army’s terror bombardment of residential areas in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has left seven civilians dead (including a 10-year-old child) and 44 injured, as well as causing widespread destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure.
Despite frequent counter-battery fire from the Russian army and the DPR People’s Militia, the Ukrainian army’s terror bombardment of civilians in Donbass continues. It seems that Ukrainian soldiers have decided to take revenge against DPR and Russian civilians for the takeover of Lisichansk by the allied forces.
On the night of 2 to 3 July, the Ukrainian army shelled the Russian city of Belgorod, located near the border with Ukraine, killing five civilians and wounding 11 others. A similar attempt against Kursk failed.
The Ukrainian army targeted purely residential areas, not military infrastructure, thus applying against Russian civilians the same terrorist methods it has used against those in the Donbass for the past eight years.
A method that it has again applied massively over the last two days. On 4 July, from 6 a.m., the Ukrainian army began shelling Gorlovka and nearby localities such as Panteleimonovka and Novobakhmutovka with mortar shells and heavy artillery. Then, at around 8 a.m., Yassinovataya, further south, and Yakolevka were shelled with 122 mm heavy artillery by Ukrainian soldiers based near Avdeyevka.
Twenty minutes later, Donetsk (Kievski district) and Makeyevka become the target of the Ukrainian army’s terror bombardments, this time from Peski, with 152 mm heavy artillery. Villages on the outskirts of Donetsk, such as Alexandrovka, are not left out, and are shelled by Ukrainian soldiers from Krasnogorovka, with 122 mm artillery.
Depuis ces mêmes positions, l’armée ukrainienne inflige de nouveaux bombardements de terreur sur le quartier Petrovsky de Donetsk, puis à nouveau sur Alexandrovka, depuis ses positions à Maryinka.
Then Gorlovka and the surrounding area were shelled again by the Ukrainian army with Grad multiple rocket launchers and 122 mm heavy artillery. At around 10 a.m., the Kirovski and Kuibyshevski districts of Donetsk were shelled by Ukrainian soldiers with 152 mm heavy artillery, followed by the Kievski district with Grad multiple rocket launchers.
Throughout the day on 4 July 2022, the terror bombardment continued towards Donetsk, Makeyevka, Alexandrovka, Elenovka, Yassinovataya and Gorlovka.
At around 11.30 a.m., the Ukrainian army again used NATO standard 155 mm guns against Makeyevka from its positions in Avdeyevka, and at around 12.40 p.m. fired eight 220 mm Hurricane rockets at the Kievski district of Donetsk.
At around 3 p.m., the Ukrainian army conducted its terror bombardment against Donetsk with NATO standard artillery from its positions in Pervomaiskoye.
The Ukrainian army’s terror bombardment did not end until 9 p.m. with the firing of 40 Grad rockets against the village of Novoselovka, near Gorlovka.
In total, on 4 July 2022, the Ukrainian army fired 731 munitions against the DPR, including eight 220mm Hurricane rockets, 166 120mm Grad rockets, 144 NATO standard 155mm shells, 183 152mm artillery shells, 157 122mm artillery shells and 73 120mm mortar shells.
The death toll from the Ukrainian army’s terror bombardment of purely residential areas of the DPR (there were no weapons, ammunition, positions or soldiers in the areas targeted by Ukrainian fire) was four civilians killed and 32 wounded, including a Russian journalist.
The market near the Donetsk railway station was completely burnt down by the intensive shelling.
As a result, people living near the railway station spent the night in the cellar of their homes to protect their children from the Ukrainian army’s terror bombing.
Russian and DPR People’s Militia artillery worked actively all day to destroy the regularly changing Ukrainian army firing positions, destroying four platoons of Grad and Hurricane multiple rocket launchers. But this was not enough to calm the Ukrainian soldiers, who continued this tactic of terror bombardment against DPR settlements on 5 July 2022.
The Ukrainian army first fired at Gorlovka and its outskirts at 3.55 a.m. with 122 mm heavy artillery. Then, at 7.45 am, Ukrainian soldiers shelled Yassinovataya with Grad multiple rocket launchers, and 10 minutes later it was again 155 mm artillery offered by NATO countries to Ukraine that was used to shell the Kievski and Kuybyshevski districts of Donetsk.
As on the previous day, the Ukrainian army’s terror bombardment then targeted several localities by changing firing positions: Alexandrovka, the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, Dolomitnoye, Panteleimonovka, and Ozerianovka.
Then at 09:40, the Ukrainian army fired 10 unguided 80 mm aerial rockets at Novobakhmutovka, but without using any aircraft (probably a DIY operation like the ones I saw a few years ago in Zaitsevo, where a mortar shell had been mounted on an RPG-type anti-tank rocket launcher rod).
At 10.45 a.m. and again at 3.30 p.m., the Ukrainian army shelled the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk (city centre) with standard NATO 155 mm artillery. The shelling hit the beginning of Chelyuskintsev Street, where a 10-year-old girl was playing outside her house. The girl’s body was torn apart by the shrapnel. The video below shows the remains of her body and her mother, who lost her only child.
This is what the weapons that the West (including the United States and France) is sending to Ukraine are for! Not to fight the Russian army, but to shoot at purely residential areas to kill civilians, including children!
On the map below you can see all the districts in and around Donetsk that were hit by the Ukrainian army’s terror bombing on 5 July. To put it simply, only two districts escaped the shelling, which is still going on at the time of writing.
In total, the Ukrainian military fired 508 munitions into the DPR on 5 July 2022, including 98 122mm Grad rockets, 10 80mm airborne rockets, 183 NATO standard 155mm artillery shells, 42 152mm artillery shells, 64 122mm artillery shells, and 111 120mm and 82mm mortar shells.
In addition to the 10-year-old girl, the Ukrainian army fire killed two other civilians in the Kievski and Petrovski districts of Donetsk, and 12 others were injured in the capital and Alexandrovka. As on the previous day, many homes and purely civilian infrastructure were destroyed, including a car garage in Donetsk.
It is to be hoped that counter-battery fire from the Russian army and the DPR people’s militia will eventually bring an end to the Ukrainian army’s terror bombing of civilians.