Dozens killed in strike on market in Russian-occupied city of Donetsk

Among the injured in the suburb of Tekstilshchik were two children, said Denis Pushilin, the local leader.

The claims could not be independently verified by The Associated Press. The Ukrainian military made an official statement denying responsibility for the attack.

Both sides in the war have increasingly relied on longer-range attacks this winter amid largely unchanged positions on the 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) front line in the nearly two-year-old war. 

The artillery shells that hit the area had been fired from the area of Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka to the west, Pushilin said, adding that emergency services responded to the scene.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including today’s shelling of the city of Donetsk in Ukraine”, according to a UN spokesperson, adding that all such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russia annexed illegally in 2022, months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. 

Russia's foreign ministry also blamed Ukraine and described the strike as a “terrorist attack”.

Also on Sunday, a fire broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Russia’s Ust-Luga port following two explosions, regional officials said. Local media said the Baltic Sea port, 165 kilometres (about 100 miles) southwest of St Petersburg, had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a gas tank to explode.

The blaze was at a site run by Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek.

In a statement to Russian media outlet RBC, the company blamed the fire on an “external influence”, saying operations at the port were paused.

Yuri Zapalatsky, the head of the Kingisepp district on the Gulf of Finland where the port is located, said there were no casualties but the area was on high alert.

News outlet Fontanka reported that two drones had been detected flying towards St Petersburg on Sunday morning, but were redirected towards the Kingisepp district. AP could not independently verify the reports.

Russia's defence ministry did not report any drone activity in the Kingisepp area in its daily briefing. It said that four Ukrainian drones had been downed in Russia’s Smolensk region, and that two more were shot down in the Oryol and Tula regions. 

Russian officials previously confirmed a Ukrainian drone had been downed on the outskirts of St Petersburg on Thursday.

Front-line fighting

In fighting on the front line, Russia’s defence ministry said Moscow’s forces had taken control of the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces confirmed the settlement had been occupied, but described its capture as temporary.

Ukrainian Ground Forces Command spokesman Volodymyr Fityo said Kyiv’s troops had been pulled back to reserve positions from the village, which had a population of about 45 people before the start of the war.

“That’s five houses, probably,” he was quoted as saying by Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske. “Our main goal is to save the lives of Ukraine’s defenders.”

Recent Russian attacks have tried to find gaps in Ukraine’s defences by using large numbers of missiles and drones in an apparent effort to saturate air defence systems.

The massive barrages – more than 500 drones and missiles were fired between December 29 and January 2, according to officials in Kyiv – are also using up Ukraine’s weapons stockpiles.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)