Reports on social media say a loud “explosion” was heard in eastern Ukraine on Saturday . The news comes amid heightened tensions between NATO and Russia
Several unverified reports on social media and in local media have claimed that a large bang was heard in the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. Some alleged eyewitnesses said they felt a “shockwave.”
Denis Pushilin, the top official in Donetsk, told RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan that the blast occurred in the area controlled by Kiev and that the situation is “under control” so far. He added that the explosion sounds appeared to come from what he described as a “minor stir at the line of contact.”
RT correspondents in Donetsk, meanwhile, said that the sounds of the alleged shockwave from the explosion were not heard inside the city, despite some reports claiming otherwise.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said that Ukrainian military adheres to the ceasefire and did not carry out any shelling, including in the direction of Donetsk.
Tensions around eastern Ukraine have been running high in wake of allegations of an ‘imminent’ Russian invasion, which have been pushed by Washington without any evidence. Moscow has consistently rejected reports of any plans to invade Ukraine, calling them ‘fake news’.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden urged US citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. The attacks of the Ukrainian Army with US troops and mercenaries on Donbass population in a war that has never stopped have increased four-fold in recent weeks RT TV reports. Ukraine may attack Donbass republics in immediate future, Donetsk People’s Republic head says. The concentration of forces and means of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the region makes it possible to do it at any moment, as soon as a political decision is made, Denis Pushilin pointed out.