Evidence suggests a deadly explosion at a busy market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka this month was caused by an errant missile fired by Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Ukraine has said the September 6 blast, which killed at least 16 people, was caused by a Russian missile.
“Evidence collected and analysed by NYT, including missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts, strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of an errant Ukrainian air defence missile fired by a Buk launch system,” the newspaper reported. The press service of Ukraine’s SBU security service, asked about the report, said that ac cording to an investigation still underway, the Russians were responsible for the strike, which it said had involved a Russian S-300 missile system. “This is evidencedby the identified missile fragments recovered at the scene of the tragedy,” it said. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday described the Sept 6 blast as “a Ukrainian attack on its own city”.
The NYT report said security camera footage showed the missile flew into Kostiantynivka from the direction of Ukrainian-held territory. It said minutes before the strike, Ukraine had launched two surface-to-air missiles towards the frontline from the town of Druzhkivka, 16 km northwest of Kostiantynivka.