Suspected bomb blast hits eastern Ukraine university

The University of Commerce in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk has been hit by a suspected bomb explosion.

The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)’s head of emergency services, Aleksey Kostrubitsky, said the explosion appeared to have been caused by a bomb, RT reported on Thursday.

“Preliminarily, judging from the nature of the damage, this was an explosive device,” he said.

The incident partially destroyed the facility, but so far there have been no reports about potential human losses.

The DPR’s administrative body has described the blast as a “terrorist act.”

An armed coup ousted the Ukrainian government in 2014. The same year saw the establishment of the DPR and Lugansk People’s Republic, another self-proclaimed eastern entity, by pro-Russia forces, who would not submit to the post-putsch authorities.

Clashes between the forces and the new authorities have so far claimed more than 10,000 lives.

In September that year, Ukraine’s new rulers and the Moscow-friendly forces signed a ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to halt the clashes in Ukraine’s eastern regions. They agreed on 12 points, including pulling back heavy weapons, releasing prisoners, setting up a buffer zone on the Russia-Ukraine border, and allowing access to international observers.

The warring sides also inked another truce deal, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Russia, Germany, and France.

Since then, however, both parties have on numerous occasions accused each other of violating the ceasefire.