The Donetsk City Hall bombing adds to a series of setbacks facing the Kremlin – Politico

A pro-Moscow official in the occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk claimed that the mayor’s office in the separatist-held region was hit by Ukrainian missiles on Sunday.

“According to the information received, today at 7:37 [6:37 a.m. in CET] Alexey Kulmzin, who has served as the mayor of Donetsk since 2016, said in statement on his Telegram channel.

Kulemzin later posted several videos and photos of the aftermath of the alleged attack, which show a heavily destroyed building amidst scattered flames and thick smoke. He pointed out that three cars parked near the building caught fire, and Colmsin did not mention any injuries.

The attack, for which Ukraine has not yet claimed responsibility, follows another setback for Moscow. On Saturday, Russian media reported that two shooters opened fire on a Russian military training center, killing 11 and wounding 15. Russia’s state news agency TASS, Two men with small firearms shoot a group of volunteer soldiers during a firearms training session at a facility in Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine. The men were identified as being from a country in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional club of post-Soviet states.

Reuters News agency It quoted a senior Ukrainian official as saying that the militants are citizens of Tajikistan, and they hope to shoot at a disagreement over religion (the Tajiks are mostly Muslims, while Russia is mostly Christians); The agency was unable to independently confirm these allegations.

Although the shooting is largely insignificant numerically, the shooting is the latest in a host of difficulties that have plagued Moscow in the past few weeks – including last week’s destruction of the Kerch bridge linking Russia and Crimea, a region Ukrainian claims Russia annexed it. in 2014.

In his usual life Saturday evening addressUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that more than 65,000 Russian soldiers have died in the war so far, adding that he worries that 100,000 dead won’t be enough to “make the Kremlin think a little.”

While exact estimates of casualties on each side vary widely, the heavy losses have prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for “partial mobilization” on September 21, which has displaced tens of thousands of young people out of the country. The Kremlin said last week that the mobilization would end gradually within two weeks, after the recruitment of 222,000 reservists.