"At first, when there was less of their equipment in our area, they [Ukrainian forces] were massively shelling our block, saying that it was the Russians who were shelling. But we could see where everything was coming from, we understood what was going on," the man said.
He said he and his family stayed awake day and night for nearly ten days, being under massive artillery fire.
"They just shelled residential neighborhoods for days at first. They were just pounding them," the man said.
Answering the question as to why the Ukrainian military was firing on their own city, he claimed that the goal was to "show a picture to the entire world how Russia and the DPR [Donetsk People's Republic] are killing civilians."
The Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly stressed that its forces are only targeting Ukraine's military infrastructure and have been doing everything possible to avoid civilians casualties. Russia and militia forces from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics launched a special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February, aimed at "demilitarising and denazifying" the country following a breakdown in negotiations and continued Ukrainian artillery and mortar attacks on the Donbass republics. The operation has provoked a backlash from the US and its allies across the globe who have introduced an unprecedented package of sanctions against Russia in the past eight days.