At least two people were killed and 13 wounded by artillery shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Saturday during the Russian-proposed ceasefire, according to a regional prosecutor.
In a Facebook post Saturday, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched a pretrial investigation into events on Friday.
“According to the investigation, on January 6, 2023, the occupation forces of the Russian Federation carried out regular artillery shelling of the city of Bakhmut and Bakhmut district,” the prosecutor said.
A CNN team on the ground in Bakhmut on Friday observed incoming and outgoing artillery fire around Bakhmut since the Russian ceasefire began at 11 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) that day.
The ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and rejected by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was supposed to last for 36 hours.
“As a result of powerful mortar attacks on residential areas, a 66-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman died. Thirteen more people received mine-blast injuries and shrapnel wounds,” the prosecutor added in the statement.
Private households, apartment buildings and other objects were damaged and destroyed by Friday’s shelling, according to the prosecutor.
Ukraine’s military maintained that Russia attacked Ukrainian positions across the east and south of the country until 6 a.m. Kyiv time Saturday, despite the ceasefire declared unilaterally by Moscow.
