DONETSK, March 21. /TASS/. The village of Tonenkoye near Avdeyevka, which has now been liberated, used to host the crews of Vampire multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told TASS.

"It was in Tonenkoe that the notorious Vampire MLRS crews were stationed when they carried out strikes on downtown Donetsk in 2022 and 2023," he said.

Kimakovsky added that according to objective control data, crew commanders failed to stabilize the launchers on the ground, causing rockets to be fired all over Donetsk, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties. "If we think back, strikes were reported in various parts of the city center. There were a lot of them, and attacks were frequent. They largely affected the Voroshilovsky and Kievsky districts of Donetsk," he noted.

In 2022, the Ukrainian armed forces significantly increased attacks on Donetsk, particularly using the Czech-made Vampire MLRS. The first reports of the use of these rocket launchers in Donbass came in the summer of 2022. Indiscriminate strikes claimed numerous civilian lives. Ukrainian troops are also using these weapons to carry out attacks on Russia’s borderline Belgorod Region.