Russian bomb kills at least one, wounds 21 in eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillia

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

Russian forces carried out an attack on a shopping mall and market in Dobropillia, a town near the front line of the 40-month war, on Sunday, killing at least one person and wounding up to 21, officials said.

“The Russians have again deliberately targeted a crowded place – a shopping mall in the center of the city,” Vadim Filashkin, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, wrote on the Telegram app.

“This time they used a 500kg aerial bomb.”

Filashkin, in a video posted on Telegram in combat gear, said one person was killed and 21 were injured in the attack that took place in the early evening. He said about 30 shops were damaged, as well as more than 300 apartments in nearby buildings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “simply horrible, stupid Russian terror” in an evening video address. Their attacks have no military logic, their goal is only to kill as many people as possible.

Zelensky said two people were killed and 11 were injured.

Videos posted online showed the area around the shopping mall in flames, with smoke rising into the sky.

Dobropilya is located northwest of Pokrovsk, which has been the target of Russia’s slow westward advance through Donetsk Oblast for months. In March, an attack on Dobropilya with rockets, drones and missiles killed 11 people, including five children.