On the afternoon of April 21, Russian troops shelled Sloviansk using a multiple launch rocket system. According to the city military administration, five civilians were injured as a result of the attack on the central streets of the city.
This is reported by Finway
Details of the Shelling and Government Response
The mayor of Sloviansk, Vadym Lyakh, reported that the strikes hit the roadway in the city center. The head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, noted that all the injured are receiving necessary medical assistance, and emergency and specialized services are working at the scene.
Additionally, Filashkin mentioned that earlier that same day, three more people were injured due to an airstrike on Sloviansk.
“Preliminarily, five people were injured,” reports the military administration.
Russia’s Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure and Signs of Genocide
Russian military forces systematically use various types of weapons, including strike drones, missiles, aerial bombs, and multiple launch rocket systems, to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure across the country. Such strikes are often aimed at essential facilities: energy networks, healthcare institutions, water supply, and communication. The Ukrainian authorities, along with international organizations, classify these actions as war crimes of the Russian Federation and emphasize their intentionality.
Attacks on the life-support systems of the population and healthcare institutions, aimed at depriving people of basic living conditions, are viewed by experts as signs of genocidal actions. In particular, public calls by Russian officials for the destruction of Ukrainians, targeted actions to eliminate Ukrainian identity, the deportation of children, the destruction of cultural monuments, and the persecution of citizens with pro-Ukrainian positions in temporarily occupied territories are being documented.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, defines genocide as actions intended to completely or partially destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. To date, 149 member countries of the Convention are obligated to prevent genocide and punish it in both wartime and peacetime.
At the same time, the Russian leadership denies that its troops deliberately target civilian infrastructure, claiming that there are no attacks on the civilian population, hospitals, schools, energy, and water supply facilities in Ukraine.