Occupied Donetsk sees third shopping center fire this month

What is known about the fire

On the evening of August 15, eyewitnesses began posting photos of a large-scale fire at the Galaktika shopping center in occupied Donetsk, also reporting drone flyovers over the city.

According to an analysis of photographs conducted by ASTRA analysts, the building is located in the Kuibyshevskyi district of the city — on street panoramas, the facility is still marked under its old name Amstor, which was changed to Galaktika back in 2019.

Already the third case this month

This is already at least the third fire at shopping centers of the Galaktika chain in occupied territory in August alone.

Photo: OSINT channel of the fire at the Donetsk shopping center (t.me/astrapress)

On the night of August 9–10, a similar facility of the chain was attacked and set on fire in Makiivka.

On August 14, according to Russia's state agency TASS, a shopping center in Yenakiieve was completely destroyed following a Ukrainian drone attack — according to local authorities, two employees of the facility were injured.

Occupied Donetsk has repeatedly been the target of strikes on infrastructure and enemy facilities. In July, an ammunition depot caught fire in the city — following the explosion, shells detonated for a prolonged period. That same month, a bridge connecting Donetsk and Mariupol was destroyed — traffic there is now impossible, and the occupiers are being forced to seek alternative routes.

These strikes are not isolated — earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that new attacks on occupied territories had caused panic among Russians, as well as why the panic in Crimea following the strikes has real grounds.