Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dubbed the Thursday bombardment of a bus stop in Donetsk a provocation that disrupts the work efforts of the Normandy Four.

"We are shaken by another barbaric crime in Donetsk where dozens of civilians were killed and mutilated in the attack on a public transport stop in the morning of January 22," says a statement by Lavrov posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website on Thursday.

Moscow regards this incident as "a crime against humanity and a blatant provocation aimed at undermining the effort towards peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, including progress that emerged after the recent "Normandy Four" meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France," the statement said.