Ukraine reports Russian attacks on civilians in Donetsk region

Russian attacks near a humanitarian distribution point in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region killed four people and injured four others on Wednesday, the regional governor said. “In the morning, the enemy fired relentlessly at civilians from Vugledar who came for humanitarian aid,” he wrote on Facebook.

Moscow recently withdrew its troops from the area around major cities in central Ukraine and directed them eastwards in an offensive aimed at taking over the Donbas region, of which Donetsk is a part. The region’s capital, also called Donetsk, is about 55 kilometers northeast of Vugledar and has been controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.

Grenades and rockets landed at regular intervals in the industrial city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, reporters from the French news agency AFP. Severodonetsk, which had a population of more than 100,000 before the war, is the easternmost city held by Ukrainian troops.