Yesterday local resident of Donetsk city posted a video recorded in the morning of July 21, 2015 from his apartment. Pro-Russian terrorists fired from a tank from their position near Donetsk Airport in the direction of dense residential area of Donetsk. What you see in the video is armor-piercing tank shell with tracer.

The operator is located at these coordinates 48.038277, 37.749260, that’s Kuibysheva St, 238. He is watching North direction. The shell hit apartment on the 7th floor on Kuibysheva St, 169, at these coordinates 48.027942, 37.753100.

On the video the tank shell with a tracer can be seen at 1:39. It flies with a speed faster than a speed of sound as there is a little delay between visual and audio.

When the shell hit the building it went through 2 walls and stuck in a bathroom of one of the apartments, 1 girl was wounded when a mirror broke in her apartment. You can see the damage in the video posted by Russian propaganda TV channel LifeNews. Sure they blame Ukrainian Army for this incident, but at the same time they confirm the type of the shell.

Because we know coordinates where the shell was recorded and the coordinates where it hit the building, it is possible to determine the direction where it came from. We also know technical characteristics of armor-piercing tank shell with tracer. The initial speed of this type of shell is 1800 meters per second, the tracer burning time is 2-3 seconds. In the video we can see the shell because the tracer is still burning. So it is easy to calculate that the maximum distance where it came from is 5400 meters. If you draw straight line in the direction where the shell came from you will see Donetsk Airport. Donetsk Airport is under control of pro-Russian terrorists of so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. Terrorists use it as their base now and constantly shelling Ukrainian Army positions from there. At the beginning of the video you can hear sounds of artillery fire in a distance. After shelling at Ukrainian Army positions terrorists opened fire in the direction of Donetsk residential area to imitate the response from Ukrainian forces.

From Donetsk Airport it is about 2500 m to Ukrainian positions at Opytne. This distance is perfect for tanks attacks.Such type of attacks never stop despite Minsk cease-fire agreements. See the locations and shell trajectory marked on Google Map.

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Today special monitoring mission of OSCE posted their daily report. In that report they confirm that the damage was caused by an armor-piercing tank shell. They also think that the shell was fired from NNE direction. In our analysis we came to conclusion that it came from NNW. Since OSCE observers were actually there on the ground to check all details, they may have more accurate data.

The SMM saw damage to three apartments at Kuibysheva Street in “DPR”-controlled Donetsk city consistent with arrow-type anti-armoured tank ammunition. The shell struck the north-facing external wall of one apartment and passed through three internal walls. The SMM assessed the tank shell to have been fired from a north-north-easterly direction. According to residents the incident happened during the early hours of 21 July, and caused no injuries. Residents told the SMM the shell had not exploded and was removed by “DPR” members. – SMM OSCE daily report based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 21 July 2015

You can see full text of OSCE report here

If NNE direction is correct in 3800 meters from the impact there is Zlitna St, 11А residential house at these coordinates 48.062064, 37.759793 That is well known building. Pro-Russian terrorists used it as a base attacking Donetsk Airport. It was a good shield for them to hide tanks behind it. Going further along direction line there is Spartak, area of Donetsk also controlled by so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.

The day before the incident on July 20 pro-Russian terrorists were celebrating birthday of well know terrorists “Givi”. The video from that location was posted by Graham Phillips on his YouTube channel. You can see it here.

In this video you can see the tank just next to this residential building.

For sure terrorists opened fire from a tank at residential area of Donetsk from the territory that they control. And it is more likely that they used the tank that was recorded just few hours before the incident.