DONETSK, February 23. /TASS/. A powerful blast hit Donetsk in the early hours of Wednesday, TASS correspondent reported.

The sound of an explosion was distinctly heard in the central Voroshilovsky district of the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the adjacent Kievsky district.

According to the Donetsk News Agency, the blast hit a four-storey building of the editorial facility of the television center in the Leninsky district. "It looks like a self-made explosive device thrown by someone," Director General of the First Republican Channel Sergey Pelyanitsyn, who was at the TV center at the moment, told the agency.

The DPR security forces have not yet provided any comments.

Tensions escalated along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine on February 17. On February 18, the heads of the LPR and DPR, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of the republics’ residents to Russia, citing the mounting threat of hostilities. A full mobilization was ordered in the Donbass republics on February 19.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR (the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics). Subsequent agreements on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance were signed with their leaders.