DONETSK, December 15. /TASS/. One person was killed and 11 were wounded after the massive shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian troops on Thursday morning, the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, told TASS.

"For now we know about one fatality and 11 injured people, including a ten-year-old boy," Pushilin said.

He said that local residents will remember this bombardment of Donetsk in the morning as the fiercest since 2014. According to him, Ukrainian troops know perfectly well that they are hitting residential buildings. "Forty shells from multiple rocket launchers - chaotically and mercilessly hitting residential buildings, a kindergarten, an outpatient clinic, a church. There is no doubt that these Ukrainian Nazis know that they are hitting civilian targets. Moreover, they are doing this intentionally, executing strikes on common areas," Pushilin said.

He said the shelling from Ukrainian troops encouraged by the West is the real terror against civilians and is akin to genocide.

"The past few weeks have become a real trial for the residents of the republic. Every day the enemy is trying to intimidate us, to break our spirit with bloody and murderous shelling. This is not military action in the usual sense, when two armies meet on the battlefield. This is real terror against civilians, genocide, a crime that is openly encouraged by the collective West through more arms supplies to Ukraine. But [we] will hold out, we will hold out and win," Pushilin summed up.

Early on Thursday, Donetsk was subjected to its most massive shelling since 2014, with 40 rockets from Grad multiple rocket launchers fired at the city’s Voroshilovsky and Kievsky districts at 7:00 am Moscow time.