"In the Petrovsky district, department firefighters (the employees) were extinguishing a fire that occurred after (Ukrainian) shelling," the Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. "There was an alert for a new artillery strike. The shelling hit them as they were evacuating."

Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine's east and south that Russia claimed to have annexed in late 2022 in a move condemned as illegal by most countries at the United Nations General Assembly. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.

--Reuters--