Another war crime against civilians. Testimonies and timeline of Russian army strikes on Dobropillia

The strike targeted a residential area in the city center. Eleven casualties have been reported, with 50 others injured. Ukrainian forces revealed that a Russian Zala reconnaissance drone was overhead at the time, transmitting real-time information to Russian military command. The Russians knew that rescuers were working at the epicenter of the repeated strikes. Still, they proceeded with two more attacks using banned cluster munitions, targeting civilian clusters. The sophisticated weaponry used suggests the order to commit this war crime against civilians came from high-ranking Russian military leadership. Frontliner reporters were on the ground.

On March 7, 2025, Russian forces launched a combined attack on Dobropillia. This is the first large-scale assault in Donetsk region this year, according to an official response from the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office.

At 9:20 PM on March 7, 2025, Russian forces launched their first strike on Dobropillia, using an Iskander missile that hit between two residential buildings. Just 20 minutes later, they launched a second attack with the same weapon.

Another 30 minutes later, Russian troops struck the residential area again, reportedly using Tornado-S MLRS with cluster munitions.

Within 30 minutes, the occupiers hit the city once more with Shahed (“Geran”) drones.

At least 11 people have been killed, with 50 others injured.

The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office has opened a war crime investigation under Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.

Testimonies of the survivors

9:20 PM – The first Iskander-M ballistic missile exploded near the five-story building at 29/39 Luhansky Street. Natalia Malimon, a 41-year-old worker from one of Dobropillia’s mines, was preparing for bed with her husband and two children—10-year-old Dmytro and 16-year-old Danylo—on the third floor of their old Soviet-aged apartment.

As the explosion hit, Natalia and her husband were lying on the couch, watching TV. The shockwave threw them into the corner of the room. Their son, Dmytro, who was in the next room, was cut by flying glass.

“His whole face was covered in blood, blood was pouring from his nose, and he had a wound on his stomach,” Natalia recalls, shaken.

The blast shattered windows and turned the apartment into total chaos.

“Everything was burning. In the first entrance, the explosion jammed the door, and people trapped in the fire and smoke couldn’t escape. The men broke down the door and saved them. We wanted to go to the road (Shevchenka Avenue), but that’s when the second strike hit 11 Shevchenka Avenue.”

Fortunately, they missed the next strike with Tornado-S cluster munitions, as they had already managed to drive to another area of the city in their car.

The explosion had a strong impact on their younger son. In addition to multiple glass wounds, the boy had an intense stress reaction: he is now afraid to let his mother out of his sight, even for a moment.

“We need to go to western Ukraine. We’ll leave with just a bag of things. We have relatives in Stebnyk (Lviv region), so we’ll go there first and then look for an apartment. We can’t stay here anymore, whether we want to or not. We survived by a miracle. I don’t want to tempt fate again,” Natalia says.

Cluster munition strike on civilians

During the first explosion, Kateryna was already lying down to rest. The shockwave ripped off the window frame, which struck the wall just ten centimeters above her head. Covered in blood, she ran outside, where military paramedics provided her with first aid shortly afterward.

As she was outside, the second strike hit—an Iskander-M ballistic missile hit the market near 11 Shevchenka Avenue.
“It was chaos. Screams. Everything was on fire. People were running. So many wounded. It was hell,” Kateryna recalls.
She was also caught in the Tornado-S cluster munition strike but remembers little of it.
“We all fell to the ground. I don’t really remember what happened. Everyone was screaming,” she says.

Later, Kateryna was in the basement of a nearby building when a Shahed drone strike hit.
“And then the Shahed came. But that’s nothing,” she says with a sad smile.
For 20 years, she ran a small grocery store hit by the ballistic missile at the market. The store was destroyed.
“I’ll go to Novodonetske for now. I’ll look for somewhere to buy, but not here,” she says.

Another ballistic missile

9:40 PM – The explosion of a missile near the five-story building at 11 Shevchenka Avenue was so powerful that the shockwave passed through the building, blowing out window frames on the opposite side. Windows shattered in all nearby buildings. The missile was also packed with large metal fragments, leaving deep craters even in concrete walls.

“We ran out barefoot, but there was glass everywhere.”

Hanna Stupak, a resident of the first entrance, the furthest from the explosion’s epicenter, had not slept with her husband Mykola and daughter Olesya after the first strike. The second explosion caught them in a room facing away from the blast. Their 17-year-old daughter Olesya wasn’t as fortunate—her room faced the market. Shards of glass cut her face and body.

“The girl ran out covered in blood. I grabbed her and rushed outside. Everyone was in shock, everything was burning. But we ran out barefoot, and there was glass everywhere,” Mykola recalls.

He ran back to the apartment for shoes, and in the meantime, an ambulance took the girl away.

“I ran out and couldn’t find the girl. They had already taken her. We started looking for her, and then the explosions started. Rescue workers grabbed me and pulled me into the entrance,” Mykola recalls, describing the moment of the third attack, this time with Tornado-S cluster munitions.

Death by stress

At the moment of the first Iskander-M explosion near the neighboring building, 52-year-old Lyudmyla Kugova was at home on the second floor of the five-story building at 11 Shevchenka Avenue. The blast forced her to seek shelter in the bathroom, where she called all her relatives, asking for help. The woman had serious health issues and was unable to descend to the basement shelter on her own.

The second explosion from the tactical ballistic missile, which struck right outside the windows, was stopped by the bathroom. However, the shockwave shattered all the windows and destroyed the furniture.

Her relatives arrived by car and helped Lyudmyla into the yard. During the evacuation, a car leaving the yard was hit by the shockwave from the cluster munitions strike. The vehicle was heavily damaged by debris, but luckily, no one was injured.

Lyudmyla began to feel unwell in a safer part of the city. Her relatives called an ambulance, but the dispatcher explained all teams were busy rescuing those wounded during the attack.

Lyudmyla died from a heart attack. Her relatives buried her the next day, March 8, 2025.

“This is terrorism”

Fourteen-year-old Lera lived with her family in a five-story building, with windows facing the market that was hit by a ballistic missile.

During the first strike, she was visiting relatives on the fourth floor. The second explosion caught them there, shattering all the windows and frames.

“We ran downstairs, outside. Of course, we had the animals – a cat and a dog. Everything was on fire. People were screaming. Rescue workers, firefighters, ambulances – everyone was running. Then those… I don’t remember what they’re called… (Tornado-S with cluster munitions). We fell to the ground, and the rescuers covered us with their bodies. We were crying. We were screaming,” Lera recalls.

The wave of cluster munitions that fell nearby injured a woman from a neighboring entrance and a young man whom Lera’s uncle tried to save.

“I see no sense in this attack. I feel sorry for the people who died and for those who lost everything they worked for their whole life,” Lera concludes.

“This is terrorism,” the woman standing nearby says flatly. She had hosted Lera’s family that evening, on March 7.

Text: Andriy Dubchak; photo: Andriy Dubchak, Nadia Karpova