WASHINGTON, February 5. /TASS/. The United States cannot verify reports about Ukraine’s shelling attack on Lisichansk, killing dozens of civilians, Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State Vedant Patel said.

"I've seen those reports. But again, given the track record that Russia has, we have no way of independently verifying that that information," he said, adding that Washington considers Moscow’s reports on this matter unreliable.

Earlier, Russia requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the attack on Lisichansk. The meeting is expected to be held on February 6.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on Lisichansk and stressed the inadmissibility of attacks on civilians.

On February 3, Ukrainian troops attacked the city of Lisichansk in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) with HIMARS rockets, which hit a bakery house killing 28 civilians, including one child. Ten people were rescued from under the rubble. LPR Emergencies Minister Alexey Poteleshchenko and two municipal lawmakers - Artyom Trostyansky and Ivan Zhushma - were among those killed.