Terrorists Shell Donetsk Again

May 7,2023 

I've been taking a break, but AyazK on Twitter got me to look into this shelling attack on Donetsk back on April 28 that killed at least 7 civilians on a bus, including a young girl, and damaged a hospital.

The last Donetsk attack I covered here in March - not the most recent attack (it continues daily) - had an ambulance crew killed, in a strike apparently from the Ukrainian-held northwest. That's the most common direction of attack, but other directions come up, always where Ukraine's foreign-backed Banderite terrorists bent on ethnic cleansing continue to operate.  

As reported by Donetsk mayor Alexei Kulemzin:

Kuibyshev and Kiev regions were subjected to massive shelling by the Ukrainian Nazis.

10 rockets were fired from the MLRS (PC30). Arrivals are reported in the Donetsk City area. Details are being specified.

CHP Donetsk Z: 

According to preliminary data, seven people died due to falling into a minibus, one of them was a child. More than 10 people are in the hospital. According to stringer_donetsk, at least 9 people died on the bus;

- The AFU hit the hospital, the park, residential buildings. Several cars, a grocery store, and the Olimpiyskiy stadium were damaged;

- the only MRI machine in the DPR was also damaged;

- more than 10 rockets from the MLRS were fired at the central districts of the city. They used Slovak high-explosive rockets of the JROF-M rocket, TASS was told in the power structures of the DPR;

- the shelling became the fourth in a day, in 2.5 hours the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired a total of 32 shells in Donetsk, TASS reports.

Bus Impact

Eva K. Bartlett: an 8-year-old girl died along with her grandmother on the bus, with 7 others, killed by "the cluster rocket that Slovakia supplied to the Otano-Ukrainian army." I can't verify the weapon except that I think it was a standard HE warhead with one concentrated blast, not cluster bomblets. But the girl, according to others (e.g. Dana on Twitter), did die. She was named Macha (Maria). 

Scene photos: https://t.me/dnronline/96672

Denials: Kyiv issued no explicit denials, but implicitly it always does, categorically denying that they ever target civilians or their infrastructure like this. They suggest the Russians or DPR are shelling their own people - almost daily, for 9 years now - just to make Ukraine look bad. It has the effect of punishing the people for choosing separatism, just like many in Ukraine's new Banderite military would like to do. They say the "Russians" do it for them.

Alexei Navalny's chief of staff Leonid Volkov piped up on Twitter to make this case. After an alleged and denied Russian attack on civilians in Uman, "something is blown up in Donetsk on the same day. Well, to interrupt the summons and shout: "and they beat us (too)!". This has already been worked out to automatism. The automatism of the dead."

Fascist Alex ꑭ Bezfam on Twitter explained how "Footed creatures" (meaning Russians - subhumans to him) powerfully fired at the center of the city. As usual, the outgoing ones were heard well." That view was supported with a reply from balalaika🇺🇦 @orkam_net whose bio is "I hate orcs [Russians]."  That mindset does NOT set them up to be correct. The location is right, around 72/74 Universytets'ka St. However, the call that the rocket came from the SE, where Russians/DPR forces are, is done backward. It occasionally is, and such people take those readings as valid and as stand-ins for all other cases, so they can "know" the DPR or Russians are behind all this shelling.

That photo wasn't very clear with the mud and water reflecting a slate-gray sky, and it seems to make sense that the bus ahead would be damaged. But there is a rough semicircle of puddles on the far side of the elongated crater. Here's a photo of DPR investigator reading it right - the opposite way, from the Ukrainian-held NW - largely down the street, but a bit left-to-right (source: JCC on Telegram). 

The splash pattern of fragments hitting the pavement on the underside (orange arc here) is also on the back side, pointing back to the origin. This clarifies the point. Some higher back-side fragments flew a ways to the NW before damaging the bus and setting it ablaze. Still angling up, it can be seen some tore through the roof. If it had come in the other way, its higher-angled forward fragments would surely have passed well over the bus at that distance.

Hospital Attack

Patrick Lancaster: "At least 10 civilians injured as a result of a rocket hitting the traumatology hospital during the mass rocket barrage of Donetsk Donetsk that killed at least 7 including children and injured many."

This was said to damage or destroy the only MRI scanner in the DPR, further complicating cancer diagnoses and such. To be fair, it doesn't look badly damaged in its important parts, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

Internal views: 

https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/1651970905252278272

https://twitter.com/ARTESOSCURASBOO/status/1652622366533402625 

There's a damaged interior wall across from that entry hole. The path between them is almost across the room or perpendicular to the walls, with the munition trending just a bit to its left. But what direction is that?

External views: 

Lancaster, above

https://t.me/dnronline/96724

https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1651922847059648513

https://twitter.com/PadreEmerito/status/1651983895519191041

That happens to be a spot I know. It's the only spot at the hospital with these features, including an external covered structure, a unique saw-horse, 3 arches and another wing to the left, and a 4-story section to the right, with some damage near the top (bottom left view above). This is a NNW-facing wall of the hospital a meter or two from a spot hit back on December 24 (same upper damage visible in top left view). https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2022/12/donetsk-christmas-shelling-16-25.html

It wasn't clear before what was behind the wall that was not punctured in that attack. But this only MRI scanner is probably what the foreign-backed terrorists were aiming for then, and they finally hit it now, with more enabled and ignored genocidal terrorism.

Other

Patrick Lancaster video: More civilian vehicles destroyed during the mass rocket barrage of center Donetsk by Ukrainian forces today that killed at least 7 including children and injured many.

This spot in on Universytets'ka St one block north of the bus impact - a new pizza place to the left (added since 2011 street view) has high, scattered marks - partly the forward direction from an impact somewhere in this parking lot. That's somewhat down the street SE, or from the NW or similar.

Stadium: https://t.me/DNR_SCKK/14828

Soil spreads largely towards the camera, away from the ... structure there, and probably a bit right-to-left. That's on the west side, so this projectile came partly from the west, and probably the north. Best guess: northwest like the others. 

Overview