RIGHT SPEAK: Moscow Claims UKR Shelled Market in RU-Occupied City; RU Natural Gas Seaport Terminal Catches Fire; RUs Deploy Air Defence to Crimea and Front Line, Leaving Rest of RU Empty; UKR Repelled Largest Number of RU Assaults on Kupiansk Front; RU Loses 4 Tanks, 14 Art Syst, 750 soldiers-1Day, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

At least 27 dead after Ukraine shells market in Russian-occupied city, Moscow officials claim:

Moscow-installed officials said Ukrainian shelling killed at least 27 people and wounded 25 on Sunday at a market on the outskirts of Donetsk, a Russian-occupied city in the eastern part of the country.

Among the injured in the suburb of Tekstilshchik were two children, said Denis Pushilin, the local leader.

Ukrainian officials in Kyiv did not comment on the incident, and the claims could not be independently verified by The Associated Press. Both sides have increasingly relied on longer-range attacks this winter amid largely unchanged positions on the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line in the nearly 2-year-old war.

The artillery shells that hit the area had been fired from the area of Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka to the west, Pushilin said, adding that emergency services responded to the scene.

Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russia annexed illegally in 2022, months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry also blamed Ukraine and described the strike as a “terrorist attack.”

Also on Sunday, a fire broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Russia’s Ust-Luga port following two explosions, regional officials said. Local media said the Baltic Sea port, 165 kilometers (about 100 miles) southwest of St. Petersburg, had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a gas tank to explode.

The blaze was at a site run by Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek.

In a statement to Russian media outlet RBC, the company blamed the fire on an “external influence,” saying operations at the port were paused. --->READ MORE HERE

Russian Governor Alexander Drozdenko

Russian governor: Russian natural gas seaport terminal catches fire:

The terminal of the Russian Novatek natural gas company caught on fire in the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko announced on Telegram. Novatek is the largest independent natural gas producer in Russia.

The governor stated that no casualties have been reported but other Russian media sources suggested that 150 people were evacuated. A high-alert regime was introduced in the Kingiseppsky district. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Novatek is Russia's largest producer of liquified natural gas. The U.S. introduced sanctions against one of Novatek's major production entities, the Arctic LNG-2 (liquified natural gas) project, for which it has a 60% share.

Reuters reported last month that Novatek itself issued force majeure declarations to multiple clients after the U.S. imposed sanctions against Russian LNG in November 2023.

Businesses may declare force majeure if they cannot supply promised goods or services due to circumstances beyond their control.

Earlier this month, a huge fire broke out at a warehouse in St. Petersburg belonging to one of Russia's biggest online stores, Wildberries, affecting at least 70,000 square meters of the property. --->READ MORE HERE