On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched a military operation in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin called its goal “to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years”. According to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of July 03, through the efforts of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the LPR and the DPR, the entire territory of the LPR was liberated, which was one of the primary tasks of the SMO. However, as of December 15, 2022, more than 40% of the territory of the DPR was still controlled by the Ukrainian security forces.
In the area of the Donetsk front, offensive operations were constantly carried out on the positions of the Ukrainian armed formations. In response, the UAF began to use the tactics of intimidating the civilian population, striking at crowded places, civilian infrastructure facilities, transport and trade hubs, shelling Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Makeyevka and other front-line settlements of the DPR on a daily basis.
From November 27 to December 26, 2022, the UAF indiscriminate shelling of densely populated areas of Donetsk acquired a particular intensity. The capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic was hit daily, including in its central regions. At the sites of shelling, the remains of Grad MLRS missile projectiles (see Fig. 1) or its Czech counterpart RM-70 MLRS (see Fig. 2) were found.
The first of many episodes that occurred during this period were Ukrainian artillery strikes on the central streets of Donetsk on November 27, 2022. On this day, residential buildings, a kindergarten and a café were damaged. Since then, Donetsk has been subjected to indiscriminate shelling daily. Often it happened 2-3 times a day.
Other egregious incidents include the following:
On December 1, 2022, two kindergartens, a hotel and a number of residential buildings were damaged as a result of shelling by the UAF.
On December 4, 2022, a kindergarten, office buildings, dormitories, and residential buildings got under fire.
On December 9, 2022, several buildings of the Donetsk National Technical University were also damaged, a man born in 1979 was wounded.
However, targeted shelling of medical institutions became the most criminal and dishonorable. Among others, Donetsk Clinical Territorial Medical Association named after Kalinin (DoCTMA) was affected.
Thus, on December 11, 2022 at 05:54 Moscow time, the Voroshilovskiy and Kalininskiy districts of Donetsk came under artillery fire. As a result of the shelling in the Kalininskiy district, damage was sustained by the 8th and building No. 11s of the DoCTMA named after M. Kalinin in Ilyicha Ave.; in the Voroshilovskiy district, the Donetsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after A.B. Solovyanenko in Artioma St., apartment buildings in 35, and 37, Universitetskaya St., 26, and 31 Pushkina Blvd., (fire detected), 33 Pushkina Blvd. (direct hit on the roof), 86, Artioma St., 122, and 137, Postysheva St., and 24, Teatralny Ave.
On December 18, 2022, at 20:14 Moscow time, the Voroshilovskiy and Kalininskiy districts of Donetsk, were again shelled, as a result of which a direct hit on building No. 6 was recorded, buildings No. 5, 7 and 8 of the Kalinin DoCTMA in Ilyicha Ave.; apartment buildings in 99, 50 years of the USSR St., 158, Gorky St., 148, Chelyuskintsev Str.. As a result of this shelling, in DoCTMA two patients were injured, one of them (who received severe craniocerebral and thoracic injuries) later died.
The next day, December 19, 2022, at 22:40 Moscow time DoCTMA was again subjected to artillery fire. As a result of a direct shell hit, three floors of the polyclinic (building No. 10) of the DoCTMA collapsed. In addition, there was a direct hit followed by a fire in the sports building of the State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education M. Gorky DonNMU in Ilyicha Ave.; one of the rockets exploded right next to the office of the humanitarian mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kapitana Ratnikova St., the façade and glazing of the office were damaged; there was also a shell hit in the territory of the Children’s Day Care Center No. 405 in Kapitana Ratnikova St.; and some other buildings were damaged in Ilyicha Ave., and Kapitana Ratnikova St
.
It follows from the above that on December 11, 2022, at 05:54 (MSK), on December 18, 2022, at 20:14 (MSK) and on December 19, 2022, at 22:40 (MSK) Donetsk Clinical Territorial Medical Association named after Kalinin was subjected to artillery fire from the Grad MLRS. The shells flew in a direction from north-west to south-east (azimuth 307 degrees, error making ± 15 degrees).
All shell hits fell on densely populated residential areas of the city and led to damage to civilian objects, death and injury to civilians. Thus, the principles of selectivity and proportionality were violated.
As a result of the analysis of news videos and information from the Internet, it was found that the Rocket Artillery Battery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could be located in the sector from which the shelling was carried out. This unit is part of the 36th Independent Motorized Infantry Brigade of the UAF under the command of Colonel Victor Alexandrovych Sikoza.
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