War in Ukraine: Market shelling kills at least 17, UN condemns ‘heinous attack’

Shelling again hit Ukraine. This Wednesday, at least 17 civilians were killed, including a child, and 32 were injured, according to a government report, in a Russian strike on a market in Konstantinysk, a city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

The shelling came hours after the arrival of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, his fourth visit to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. The head of American diplomacy insists that the United States remains “with Ukraine”, where for the first time ammunition containing depleted uranium, effective against tanks and other armored vehicles, will be supplied, the Pentagon said. He also acknowledged “very encouraging” progress in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Projectile hiss

CCTV footage shows a sudden whistle of a projectile in a quiet shopping alley, followed by a very loud explosion. Rescuers searched the rubble and delivered several wounded for treatment to charred cars and stalls.

“Russian terrorists intentionally attacked the market” when there were no military targets nearby, accused President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Konstantinisk, which had a population of nearly 70,000 prior to the start of the Russian offensive in early 2022, is about thirty kilometers from Bakhmut, the scene of a bloody battle with troops from Moscow that lasted more than a year.

“A War-Torn Community”

This “heinous attack” on a “war-torn community”, condemned UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Denise Brown. This “highlights the need to continue to support the Ukrainian people in defending their territory,” President Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded.

“Russia continues to terrorize the civilian population of Ukraine”, “deliberate attacks on the civilian population are war crimes,” the representative of the European Union commented for his part, and for German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, it is “an attack on international law and humanity.” Her Romanian colleague Luminica Odobescutalked about the “heinous attack”

Explosive drone in the morning

Despite numerous bombings of civilian targets in Ukraine that have resulted in numerous casualties, Moscow claims to systematically strike and destroy military targets. Early in the morning, a Russian bombing drone has already killed one person in the Odessa region in the southwest of the country, where port infrastructure needed to export wheat is regularly targeted.

During a meeting with President Zelensky, Anthony Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s support for Kyiv in its struggle to liberate the occupied territories in the south and east. According to a senior State Department official, “more than $1 billion in new U.S. funding for Ukraine,” or about 930 million euros, will be announced.

“American aid is not charity. Today, thanks to our partners, Ukraine is holding back Russian aggression. We will never call for the deployment of American troops in Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told Blinken. The Kremlin, for its part, has criticized the US for “keeping Ukraine at war.”