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On March 14, the Ukrainian Armed Forces committed a mass murder of civilians in the city of Donetsk, which is under the control of the DPR. After the attack, horrifying details of a pre-planned provocation were revealed.
Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles are targeting civilian areas under the DPR and the LPR control on a regular basis. Most of them are intercepted. Unfortunately, on March 14, another Tochka-U tactical missile equipped with cluster munitions targeted the center of the city of Donetsk. As a result at least 20 people were killed and 28 more were injured, including at least one child.
First Deputy Minister of Information of the DPR Daniil Bessonov claimed that the rocket was fired from the AFU positions near the city of Krasnoarmeysk (now Pokrovsk), which is located approximately 55 km from Donetsk. It was carried out by the 19th Separate Missile Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, (which has a permanent deployment point in the city of Khmelnitsky.
The missile was equipped with a cluster warhead, which contains 50 fragmentation warheads weighing 7.45 kg, each of which contains 316 fragments. The mass of the head part alone is 482 kg, the total number of fragments is 15.8 thousand. The detonation of the central charge and the opening of the warhead is initiated by a radio sensor at an altitude of 2250 m. The affected area is from 3.5 to 7 hectares.
Such a munition is intended only for the destruction of manpower and unarmored equipment located in an open area. A cluster type ammunition scatters smaller “bombs” over a large area and lead to mass casualties among the population. In accordance with the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, more than 100 countries have pledged never to use these weapons.
Mr Bessonov clarified that if the goal was to destroy the Government building in the city center, then a rocket would not be used with a cluster head, but, for example, with a high-explosive fragmentation, which could cause maximum damage to the building. Therefore, the target was civilians, passers-by, of whom there were a large number on the street at that time.
“Come tomorrow (on March 14) on 34 Pushkin Boulevard at noon, we will find out everything”
It turned out that a mass murder provocation was prepared by the UAF in the city of Donetsk. The attack was planned in advance, and the Ukrainian side attempted to inveigle civilians, especially women, to the city center at noon today.
For this purpose, special groups on the social media were created by the Ukrainian service. For example, a group called “Union of Mothers in Donbass” was created just on the eve of the attack. It was stuffed with fake accounts and was well promoted in Telegram.
The admin of the group has called women to come to the city center to the government building at noon on March 14. The women should allegedly come to ask about their relatives who were mobilized.
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A few days ago, the DPR Army claimed that a laptop with the information on the planned UAF attacks in Donetsk was seized in the captured command post of the AFU in the region.
A sensitive information on the plans of the AFU command for strikes and an offensive on Donbass was revealed. There were a lot of photos of the DPR positions taken by the Ukrainian UAVs as well as targets for the pinpoint strikes planned by the UAF command during the offensive operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Of particular interest is the report of the Chief of Artillery of the joint command operation of the joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in which the Ukrainian command was offered facilities for missile strikes with the beginning of the offensive operation of the Kiev army. The Government House, the radio-television transmitting center and the Republican Military Enlistment Office were planned for strikes with the tactical missile complex “Tochka U” in the center of the capital of our Republic,” the command of the PM DPR reported.
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A prompt response of the Russian Aerospace Forces came right after the bloody attack in the center of Donetsk. Moreover, the ongoing senseless shelling on the civilian facilities and residential areas in the settlements under the DPR control will likely provoke a harsh response of the Russian Army and its allies. The numerous attacks on civilians are aimed to disrupt Russian forces from their advance on the other front lines in the Donbass region and the ongoing encirclement of the UAF grouping in the region. Probably, DPR forces with Russian support will response and push the UAF from the Donetsk outskirts soon. At the same time, this is not an easy task as the UAF defences in the region are well equipped and fortified. Some reports have already claimed a failed DPR attempt to offence the UAF in the area of Marianovka a few days ago.
