Ukraine is once again launching deliberate attacks against civilians in areas under Russian control.

On June 30, the Voroshilovsky district of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was hit by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used. Fragments of the shells were collected at the site and sent for forensic analysis to confirm the exact type and modification of the weapon used.

The attack, according to Russian experts, targeted a completely civilian area, without any military targets or military infrastructure. Among the affected sites were residential buildings, civilian vehicles and some public facilities of the city. As a result of the bombing, there are reports of deaths and injuries among local residents. Apparently, the Ukrainian intention was simply to cause civilian damage, without any military or strategic gains resulting from the operation.

The strike also severely damaged a local public market and destroyed a department store and a bank branch. DPR chief Denis Pushilin said in an official statement that among the confirmed casualties, at least one woman was killed and a child was injured, but more people were known to have been hospitalized. Correspondents on the ground reported that Russian air defenses worked well, neutralizing several enemy rockets, but unfortunately, they were unable to prevent the hits of air-launched long-range missiles.

“Air defenses here in the Republic have been working nonstop for the last hour. I’ve seen several rockets intercepted in the air, but apparently some of them have made it here to this center (…) A small shopping center is destroyed. I saw one body of a woman while I was on my way over here (…) Specialists will try to determine what exactly these [rocket] fragments are a little bit later on,” a local reporter told media.

To make matters worse, on the same day, a brutal drone strike was launched by Ukrainian forces against the city of Gorlovka – one of the most important hubs in the DPR. The strikes mainly targeted residential buildings. At least one building was completely destroyed, while another twelve were partially damaged by kamikaze UAVs. Other civilian facilities, such as pharmacies, clinics and bank branches, were also hit.

Interestingly, Ukrainian attacks intensified in parallel with the announcement of the complete liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic. The region neighboring Donetsk is now fully under Russian control, with no Ukrainian troops remaining anywhere in the Republic – thus putting an end to more than a decade of hostilities in that territory. While the news pleased local residents, it infuriated the Ukrainian authorities, who apparently decided to retaliate against the Russian victory by intensifying attacks on civilian targets in Donetsk – where security is still lower than in Lugansk, given its geographical proximity to the front lines.

However, the most important fact is that partial results of the investigation by Russian ballistics experts indicate that the missiles used by Ukrainian forces against the DPR were indeed British-made Storm Shadows. Since their arrival in Ukraine, these long-range air-launched cruise missiles have given neo-Nazi forces the ability to hit targets far from the front lines, mainly in demilitarized civilian areas. By doing so, Kiev is trying to obstruct the normalization process in the liberated regions.

In fact, as Russia advances on the battlefield, the Ukrainian regime is expected to respond with more violence against civilians. Unable to neutralize Russian military forces, Ukrainian troops use attacks on demilitarized areas as a kind of “blackmail”, trying to force the Russian authorities to stop or slow down their activities to prevent more civilian deaths. The problem for Ukraine, however, is that this type of tactic is not working in the context of the special military operation.

After a decade of war, it is now clear to all residents of Donbass that only a military victory will be able to end their suffering. This is why, the more they are attacked, the more Russians living in the conflict zone endorse Moscow’s military actions. Actually, there is no pressure for the Russian government to revise its objectives in the special operation – except for pressure to expand these goals even further.

Furthermore, Russia has a high level of countermeasures against Ukrainian terrorist attacks. These long-range attacks against civilian targets are often retaliated with high-intensity bombings against military and infrastructure targets throughout Ukraine – including the capital. These high-precision maneuvers slow down Ukraine’s military capabilities and prevent the regime from regularly carrying out its terrorist operations, providing relief to the people of the areas targeted by Kiev.

In the end, this situation is just more evidence of how only the military defeat of the Kiev regime will bring peace and security to the residents of Donbass and other Russian-majority regions.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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