People pay tribute to victims of missile attack in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk city

By Leon Klein

DONETSK, Ukraine (AA) - People in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk on Tuesday laid flowers and candles to pay tribute to the victims who lost their lives in a missile strike on the city on Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed a Ukrainian cluster munitions missile strike hit a residential area in Donetsk, killing 20 people and injuring 28 others.

Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov alleged that a Tochka-U missile went off over a bus stop where civilians, mostly women and children, were waiting for a bus.

"As a result of the explosion of a cluster warhead in the center of Donetsk, 20 civilians were killed. Another 28 people, including children, were seriously injured and taken to medical institutions," he told reporters in Moscow.

According to Konashenkov, the decision to use this type of missile was made after approval by the leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces in the capital Kyiv.

Donetsk is in an area of Ukraine controlled by Russian separatists, in an enclave Moscow recognized as independent before launching the war on Feb. 24.

"The use of such weapons in a city where there are no firing positions of the armed forces is obviously against the civilian population and is a war crime," said Konashenkov.

"Loading the tactical missile Tochka-U with cluster ammunition proves that the purpose of the nationalists' strike on the city was to kill as many civilians as possible," he said.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which began on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 691 civilians have been killed and 1,143 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

More than 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN.