The shelling of Donetsk with cluster bombs suggests that the task of the Ukranian Armed Forces was to kill as many civilians as possible, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.
The decision to use this type of missile weapons is made, at least, by the command of the Ukrainian units after approval by the leadership of the forces of Ukraine in Kiev, he added.
Earlier on Monday, Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) head Denis Pushilin said that there were children among those killed, after an Ukrainian forces attack on Donetsk using Tochka-U missiles.
"People were just standing in line, at the bus stop. Twenty people, according to preliminary data, were killed, 9 were still injured. There are children among the dead," Pushilin said.
Pushilin stressed that if the Tochka-U had reached its destination, it would have yielded a radius of destruction of around 500 metres.
"In general, nothing alive is left. It's monstrous, but this is today's Ukraine, and something that we would have to deal with, and the sooner this happens, the fewer victims and less destruction there will be, of course," the DPR head added.
The Tochka-U missile used to attack the Donetsk city contained a prohibited cluster munition, Denis Pushilin added.
"A small clarification: Tochka-U carried a cluster munition, which is prohibited, as we know. If it had not been shot down, there would have been disproportionately more victims," Pushilin said.
The Donetsk People's Republic health ministry reported that twenty-three people including one child were injured as a result of the Ukrainian attack.
On 24 February, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal "the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years". For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out "demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine", to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for "bloody crimes against civilians" in Donbass.
Prior to that, on 21 February, Russia recognized these republics as sovereign states and established diplomatic relations with the DPR and LPR the same day.