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Residential Areas in Central Donetsk Under Heavy Artillery Bombardment

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The city center of Donetsk, including residential areas, came under heavy artillery bombardment, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Thursday.

Updated 08:06 p.m. Moscow Time

DONETSK, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – The city center of Donetsk, including residential areas, have come under heavy artillery bombardment, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Thursday.

Mortar fire, which targeted a downtown street that houses several apartment buildings, was followed by shelling from Grad multiple rocket launchers.

Local residents are fleeing the streets to find shelter at home, the RIA Novosti correspondent said.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister of Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told RIA Novosti that the aggravated situation in the region may have a negative impact on the process of the Minsk talks on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian forces left 11 people dead and around 40 injured. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence.

Ukraine has been engulfed in a violent internal conflict since mid-April, when Kiev began its military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern regions of the country. The conflict claimed the lives of more than 3,500 people, according to the UN.

The sides agreed on a ceasefire at a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine held in Minsk on September 5. Another meeting of the group resulted in a memorandum, specifying implementation of the ceasefire, which involves the creation of a 30-kilometer [18-mile] buffer zone, withdrawal of all heave weapons from residential areas and the deployment of the OSCE monitoring mission.

Since the establishment of the ceasefire regime, the conflicting sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the agreement. However, the OSCE stated that the truce was generally holding.

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