Strike on Donetsk during farewell to the Hero of Russia. What was it?
Sign up for our newsletter “Context”: it will help you understand the events.
At least five people, including six, were injured Thursday morning when Ukrainian police shelled the center of Donetsk, the self-proclaimed DNR said. Ukraine denies involvement in the strike, which falls during the farewell to field commander Olga Kachura, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Footage posted on social media shows seized bodies, some cases torn to pieces, lying on a street in central Donetsk, Reuters reported. You can also see that the sidewalk is covered in blood.
Correspondents of the Russian media reveal that the catastrophes that fell under the shelling of people are in front of their eyes, and they themselves miraculously escaped the wounded. According to their reports, among the victims is a woman with her granddaughter. The BBC cannot promptly verify these measurements.
The shelling of the lungs at 10:20 am according to the transfer of time. According to the representative of the DPR, one of the goals of the Ukrainian military was the special weight loss of the separatist region, who arrived at the farewell ceremony for Olga Kachura (call sign Korsa), who commanded a rocket artillery battalion.
Her death was announced the day before, and this morning – about an hour and a half before the attack on Donetsk – Russian President Vladimir Putin appropriated her the title of Hero of Russia (posthumously).
The correspondent of RIA Novosti reports that the blow was precisely on the drama theater, where the farewell to Kachura takes place. The ceremony was interrupted. The published footage also revealed violations at the Donbass Palace Hotel, located on the central square of Donetsk.
Around the same time on Thursday, Russian shelling killed eight people in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Toretsk, north of Donetsk, appointed by the head of the regional military administration Pavel Kirilenko.
According to reports, under the blows of people at a stop of his public transport, among the wounded are three children. Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential administration of Ukraine, called the attack on Toretsk “once again an act” by Russia.
Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, declared that the Ukrainian military was not involved in the attacks on Donetsk and put forward a version that the pro-Russian separatists could have fired on themselves. Ukrainian authorities have previously stated that in Donetsk, under fire from their own forces, Ukrainian citizens do not shoot at civilian quarters.
“Only the Russians themselves or the people’s militia corps of the unrecognized criminal republics hit Donetsk.
BBC Russian Service correspondent Ilya Barabanov to whom they said goodbye in Donetsk and to whom Putin appropriatedl hero title:
“Vladimir Putin and Denis Pushilin were posthumously awarded the titles of Hero of Russia and “Hero of the DPR” to Olga Kachura, better known by the call sign Korsa. Most Russians probably discovered that Russia has such a hero only after news of the award. commands a division of the MLRS in the DPR, Russian military propaganda filmed the beginning of the plot in the winter of 2015.
Among them, Alexander “Dad” Zakharchenko, Arsen “Motorola” Pavlov, Mikhail “Givi” Tolstykh stood out. The political situation was also different. Ukraine was detained in the Kremlin, and the Kremlin defiantly distanced itself. Field commander Alexei Mozgovoy could have been faction leaders in the State Duma, but somewhere the entrance was closed. The head of the self-proclaimed DPR, Zakharchenko, has not been honored with a single personal meeting with Putin – the Kremlin reports only one of their telephone conversations.
In 2022, the political situation is already in place: Russia has invaded Ukraine and the Kremlin needs some local heroes to substantiate the thesis that Russia embraces the people of Donbass.
When Vladimir Zhoga, who replaced Motorola in the main Sparta battalion, died in the spring during the battles for Volny, he unexpectedly discovered that he was a “legendary” and almost state-forming use in the DPR. His father Putin received him in the Kremlin, he was on Red Square since May 9, streets began to appear in Volzhsky, Nevinnomyssk and Omsk in honor of Zhoga.
On the morning of August 3, there were not even Wikipedia articles about Olga Kachura, and in a month people in Belgorod or Tambov will probably live on the street named after her.
To receive BBC news, subscribe to all channels:
Download application: