The attack that killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens in the city of Donetsk on Thursday morning has increased tension in eastern Ukraine and tarnishes the prospects of cooling the conflict between the central government and separatists in the eastern Republic of Donetsk.
Moscow and Kiev are accusing each other of responsibility for the terrorist act, in which artillery blew up a bus in plain daylight. After that attack, the separatists rejected any kind of dialog with Kiev, as they assure the media that it was the Ukrainian army the one responsible for the attack.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, has condemned the terrorist act, which he described as a “tragedy” and “shared misfortune”.
“With these terrorist attacks we have had peaceful citizens perish. Russia must stop the terrorists,” said the minister in his Twitter.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has denied having anything to do with the attack, while the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, once again blamed Russia for the bombing.
In Moscow, the Research Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal investigation into the incident, in which it considers that “soldiers of the Ukrainian Army and the National Guard of Ukraine” are allegedly responsible for the attack on the bus.
The Foreign Ministry of Russia, Sergey Lavrov described the event as “crime against humanity” designed to “undermine the efforts for a peaceful resolution” to the conflict.
