Spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), 31 January 2015: Shelling incident in Donetsk City

On 30 January at 12:23hrs, the “emergency services department” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) informed the SMM that two shelling incidents had just taken place in Donetsk city at “DPR”-controlled Kuibyshevskyi district.

At around 12:30hrs, the SMM arrived at Panfilova Avenue 86, Kuibyshevskyi district, located two kilometres north-west of the city centre. The SMM observed an area in front of “Hotel Europe” where shelling had occurred. A building on the right side of “Hotel Europe” is frequently used for distributing humanitarian aid by a Ukrainian private foundation.

On site the SMM observed five civilian fatalities, three men and two women.

The SMM could not detect craters on the ground in Panfilova Avenue, but it observed that a shell had detonated in a tree in front of “Hotel Europe”.

The SMM then visited an area close to a bus stop in Matrosova Street, also located in Kuibyshevskyi district and approximately 300 metres away from the scene of the other shelling incident. At this second site, the SMM observed two fatalities, two men dressed in civilian clothing. At this second site, the SMM also observed a destroyed trolley bus and damaged electrical wires. Approximately 30 metres in front of the bus the SMM observed a fresh shell impact. The SMM’s observations suggest that the impact has most likely been caused by a 122mm artillery grenade, fired from a north-westerly direction.

At nearby Hospital No. 17, still in the Kuibyshevskyi district of Donetsk city, hospital staff reported to the SMM that another eight people, five men and three women, had been injured in the two shelling incidents - six in Panfilova Avenue and two in Matrosova Street. The hospital staff told the SMM that three of the people had been seriously injured and that one of them was in a critical condition. At the hospital, the SMM spoke with one woman who identified herself as one of the victims of the shelling in Matrosova Street. She said she had been riding the bus to work around 12:20hrs when the shelling took place and she suffered a cut on the neck caused by shrapnel fragments.