At least 25 people were killed in a shelling attack in the Russian-held city of Donetsk, the Moscow-installed leader of the region said.<\/p>\n
Denis Pushilin said a Ukrainian strike, which also injured 20 people, hit a busy market.<\/p>\n
He said emergency services were working at the scene, and that information on the number of dead and wounded was still being collected.<\/p>\n
There has so far been no comment from Ukraine on the incident.<\/p>\n
BBC News was not able to immediately verify the circumstances around the strike.<\/p>\n
Photographs published by Reuters news agency appeared to show destroyed shop fronts, as well as bodies lying in the street.<\/p>\n
Russia’s foreign ministry denounced the strike as a “barbaric terrorist attack” against civilians.<\/p>\n
According to AFP, a local resident named Tatiana told local media she heard an incoming projectile overhead, and hid under her market stall.<\/p>\n
“I saw smoke, people screamed, a woman was crying,” she was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
Donetsk city and parts of the wider region in eastern Ukraine were first seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014, and the area has been partially controlled by Moscow ever since.<\/p>\n
The city is around 20km (12 miles) from the frontline. Areas near Donetsk city – including Mariinka and Avdiivka – have seen some of the fiercest fighting of late.<\/p>\n