- Shakhtarsk, located an hour from the capital Donetsk, has been under the control of pro-Russian forces since 2014.

Russian military vehicles in Kharkiv.

16 killed when military truck collides with bus in Donetsk

Sixteen people died this Wednesday in Donetsk, in the Donbas region, eastern Ukraine, when a Russian military truck collided with a bus, the Russian agency TASS reported.

"On the Shakhtarsk-Torez highway there was a collision between a truck carrying soldiers and a bus," an emergency source told the Russian agency.

The source added that as a result of the accident "16 people died and another three were hospitalized." Shakhtarsk, located an hour away from the regional capital Donetsk, has been under the control of pro-Russian forces since 2014.

This Wednesday the interim leader of the Donetsk region, the pro-Russian Denis Pushilin, assured that the local troops are now focusing their forces on taking the town of Mariinka, where the Ukrainian forces "still hold some positions and fortifications".

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