CIT: Tochka-U strike on Donetsk was Russia’s provocation

March 14 shelling of Donetsk with a Tochka-U missile with cluster munitions was Russia’s provocation.

Ukrinform reports this with reference to the analysis by Conflict Intelligence Team founder Ruslan Leviev on the air of Nastoyashchee Vremya TV station.

"It is most likely that this [the shelling of Donetsk with a Tochka-U missile on March 14] was a provocation," Leviev said.

According to him, the CIT has extensive experience in studying the wreckage of the Tochka-U missile found on the ground, which allows determining where it came from. The fact is that the missile, tail part of Tochka-U is heavy. When a warhead separates from it in the air, it preserves its direction and speed on its own.

The photos of the incident taken in Donetsk show that the missile part of Tochka-U lies on the Shevchenko Boulevard, with its tail pointing to the southeast and its front – to the northwest. Based on this, we can geolocate that the missile arrived from the southeast. "The territory controlled by Russian forces and separatist forces is southeast [of Donetsk] along the entire 120 km – the hitting range of Tochka-U. There are no Ukrainian forces there. Accordingly, the Ukrainian missile could not arrive from there," CIT analyst explains.

He also refutes the lies of “DPR” militants (caught up by the Russian Foreign Ministry) who said that the missile had been allegedly shot down by air defense forces. According to the photos, there are no traces of damage on the wreckage of the missile lying on the ground. At the same time, Leviev confirms the fact that the warhead of the missile was loaded with cluster munitions.

According to the CIT founder, the need for such a provocation, a "terrible action" for the Russian Armed Forces is explained by the current situation at the front and in the media space. "The whole world and the entire Ukrainian population see Russian forces shelling cities (thousands killed in Mariupol alone). It turns out that the other side, the Russian forces, need to somehow balance their "moral positions", to show that they are not such beasts and that Ukrainians allegedly launch attacks," Leviev noted.

In his opinion, to have such an argument, the Russian side was "quite ready ... to take such an action with the real death of the civilian population in Donetsk."

As reported, on March 14, the center of Donetsk was hit with a missile fired from the Tochka-U tactical missile system. Twenty people were killed and 28 more were injured. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Ukrainian side of the attack, saying that "nationalists" allegedly fired from the town of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk Mayor Ruslan Trebushkin said that no missiles had been launched from the town into occupied Donetsk. Officer of the Operational Information Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Leonid Matyukhin also categorically denied such accusations.

On February 24, Russian president Putin declared war on Ukraine and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops shell and destroy infrastructure, conduct massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and towns using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles.

Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine repels Russian invaders.

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