You're reading: Separatists shelled Ukrainian troops from Donetsk residential area (AUDIO)

The Ukrainian State Security Service released an intercepted phone conversation between two separatist officials on Feb. 3, which shows that the Russian-backed separatists fired at Ukrainian government-controlled territory from the residential area of Donetsk city.

The voices on the recording resemble those of Tatiana Dvoriadkina, a member of the Russian-backed puppet legislature in Donetsk, and Andrei Purgin, a former speaker of the legislature, and indicate that the Russian-separatist forces fired the Grad multiple rocket launchers from a Donetsk city’s residential area.

“From us. They (Grad rockets) being launched from our place,” Purgin said, who lives in Donetsk city, though it is unknown on what street.

“When they (the separatists) are stupid enough to take a position near our house,” Purgin added.

Shelling from the residential area poses a big risk for the civilians living there as they may become a target of retaliatory shelling.

Several civilians were killed in Donetsk city over the last week, according to reports by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s special monitoring mission.

Photos shared on social media and analyzed by Bellingcat, an open-source intelligence outfit, support the assertion that the separatists fired from the residential area of Donetsk. Bellingcat published a report called Civilian Shields in Donetsk: Launching Grads near a Residential Area on Feb. 2.

In another report dated on Feb. 3 Bellingcat also published the evidence that the Ukrainian troops had their tanks in a residential area of Avdiyivka city, where 3 civilians have been killed in the last week.

After a week of escalation in the war, fighting has eased as of Feb. 5, according to Ukrainian military spokespeople.