You're reading: At least 14 civilians killed in Donbas as peace talks go nowhere

Donetsk endured two more devastating attacks on Jan. 30, when at least seven residents were killed after a shell hit a line near a humanitarian aid distribution center and a trolley bus, municipal authorities reported.

Seven people were also killed in Debaltseve, where Ukrainian troops are under constant attack by Russian-backed separatists and attempting to surround them, according to Vyacheslav Abroskin, head of Donetsk Oblast police.

Many residents were leaving the city of 25,000 people by special buses to escape the war.   

While the Ukrainian authorities accused separatists of killing civilians in Debaltseve, the insurgents put the blame for the Donetsk shelling on Ukrainian forces.

In Donetsk, one shell hit the cultural center in Kyivsky district at about 12:30 p.m., striking people lined up to receive humanitarian aid. Another shell fell approximately at the same time, reaching a trolley bus No 14 and killing two by preliminary information.  

Igor Martynov, who serves as mayor of rebel-controlled Donetsk city, said that shells fired by Ukrainian forces hit the community center “where stood pensioners, old people, poor and at the trolley bus with peaceful people.”

The locals shared grim photos and videos of aftermath of Donetsk shelling, where corpses and pieces of the bodies were scattered on the streets. Charity foundation by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov that was delivering the humanitarian aid at the attacked community center reported that they closed all of their distribution points for Jan. 30.  

Donetsk had to stop circulation of one trolleybus route No 14 and change another one’s route to avoid new casualties.

Volodymyr Polevoy, deputy head of information center of the National Security and Defense Council, denied that Ukrainian forces are responsible for the Donetsk attack. “The Ukrainian army has not been actively involved in fighting in Donetsk area,” he said.

Polevoy called today’s attacks in Donetsk a “provocation, attempting to disrupt peace process.”

The peace talks among epresentatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the self-proclaimed separatist republics have been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 31, Ukraine’s representatives and former President Leonid Kuchma said

Kuchma added that condition of the meeting was arrival of separatists’ leaders Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky.

However, Kuchma also said that the separatists’ representatives haven’t decided about whether to participate in the talks. “You understand that Moscow, not them takes the final decision,” he said as was quoted by RBK Ukraine.

Despite Russia’s constantly denial of its involvement in the war against Ukraine and the arming and financial backing of its proxies, the Russian investigative committee reported on Jan. 30 that a criminal case investigating the Donetsk shelling would be opened according to the Russian criminal code.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]