Ukraine identifies Russian colonel behind Tornado-S strike on Pokrovsk
Ukrainian law enforcement has identified a Russian colonel who allegedly ordered a strike on residential areas in Pokrovsk in February 2023 using Tornado-S multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
This was reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the investigation, the commander of Russia’s 439th Rocket Artillery Brigade ordered the attack, which was launched from positions near Makiivka and the outskirts of Zuhres.
Investigators said there were no military targets in the area, and the strike was deliberately aimed at densely populated residential areas using high-explosive fragmentation munitions.
The shelling hit the Soniachnyi and Shakhtarskyi neighborhoods, killing three civilians and injuring 11 others. Six apartment buildings and an educational institution were damaged.
Under the oversight of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the colonel has been charged in absentia under Part 2, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war).
“The occupiers’ tactics are intimidation and exhaustion of the population. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 60,000 people lived in Pokrovsk, but today, due to constant attacks, it is increasingly becoming a ghost town. Deliberate strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure are not about military necessity — they are about terror, leaving ruins instead of homes and fear instead of normal life. Everyone responsible must be held accountable — both those who give the orders and those who carry them out,” said Pavlo Uhrovetskyi, head of the regional prosecutor’s office.
