Donetsk, Nov 7 — The civilian death toll from Kiev artillery strikes at the Donetsk People’s Republic has increased by 69 times compared with 2021, while the number of the wounded has risen by 118 times, head of the DPR Office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine’s war crimes Ruslan Yakubov told the Donetsk News Agency.
“Regrettably, we record new civilian casualties and damage to homes and civil infrastructure almost every day, ” Yakubov said. “Statistics show that the number of damaged homes and infrastructure facilities has increased by 28 times this year and the number of dead and wounded by 69 and 118 times, respectively.”
The increase has been caused by Kiev’s terrorist practice to deliver strikes at densely populated neighborhoods using multiple rocket launchers and artillery. The so-called map of strikes has changed over the recent months as well. For example, the central parts of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya have ceased to be the areas of even relative safety. Frontline reports often mention the neighborhoods of Lidiyevka, Biryzova, Tekstilschik, Privokzalny, Magistralny and Baku Commissars Square which previously rarely appeared in the news. The Budyonnovsky and Proletarsky districts have been attacked for the first time since the beginning of the conflict. At the same time, the enemy has stopped shelling Kominternovo, Sakhanka, Telmanovo, Bezymennoye and several other DPR settlements, he said.
“The situation can change dramatically only when the frontline has been pushed away from DPR towns and the Republic’s territory has been completely liberated. At present, active fighting is ongoing on the Avdeyevka, Artyomovsk and Ugledar axes, ” Yakubov said.
Earlier reports on Monday said that 488 DPR civilians including 23 children have been killed since the new contact line escalation on February 17, 2022. Another 3,688 civilians have been wounded including 231 minors, and some 10,000 homes and infrastructure facilities have been damaged in the designated period. The data do not include casualty figures from DPR liberated areas.*jk