At least 15 people were killed after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in Donetsk, local officials say
At least 15 people were killed and two dozen others feared trapped after a Russian Uragan missile hit a five-story apartment complex in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, local officials said Sunday as forces Rescuers picked up in the rubble.
Ukraine also reported clashes with Russian troops on the eastern and southern fronts, while Moscow said its forces attacked Ukrainian military hangars storing artillery pieces. American-made M777 in Donetsk.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, said the strike on the apartment building took place on Saturday night in the town of Chasiv Yar. Regional Emergency Services put the death toll at 15 as of Sunday afternoon, but another 24 may still be under the rubble.
“We ran to the basement, got three bullets, the first time was somewhere in the kitchen,” a local resident, who gave her name as Ludmila, said as rescuers retrieved a body in a white cloth and clear the rubble with their cranes as well as their hands.
“Second letter [strike], I don’t even remember, there was lightning. We ran towards the second entrance and then went straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.”
Andriy Yermak, Chief of Staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a Telegram post that the attack was “another terrorist attack” and that Russia should therefore be designated a state sponsor. for terrorism.
Russia denies intentionally attacking civilians.
The provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk include Donbas, the eastern industrial region of Ukraine. Russia wants to take control of Donbas instead of the separatists it supports.
Moscow says the exclusion of Ukrainian troops from the area is the focus of what it calls a “special military operation” to ensure its own security, an offensive that has dragged on for more than four months. and is called a gratuitous war in the West.
Russia says US-made artillery vehicles targeted
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces on Saturday destroyed two hangars near the Donetsk town of Kostyantynivka, just southwest of Chasiv Yar. The ministry said the hangars are storing US-made M777 artillery pieces, which are believed to have been used to bombard residential areas in Donetsk.
There was no immediate response from Ukraine on this statement.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near the town of Sloviansk in Donetsk but were forced to retreat, the Ukrainian military said. It also said Russian forces had launched a cruise missile attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv from their side of the border. It did not give details of damage or casualties.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces were concentrated in the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 kilometers east of Sloviansk.
“The enemy is … shelling the surrounding settlements, carrying out air strikes, but still cannot quickly capture the entire Luhansk region,” he said on Telegram.
Russia declared control of the entire Luhansk province late last week.
Russia declared victory in Luhansk and moved south to claim the rest of the Donbas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to regain lost territory, and Canada became the first country to ratify Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession protocols.
In Mykolaiv near the Black Sea, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city on Saturday but caused no casualties.
“On this day alone, Russia attacked Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, villages in the Zaporizhzhia region,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “It hits residential areas, fully consciously and on purpose.”
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield accounts.
A Ukrainian military spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Ukrainian forces have resisted fiercely and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an attempt to force the country to withdraw.
To the south, Ukrainian forces fired missiles and artillery at Russian positions, including ammunition depots in the Chornobaivka region, the Ukrainian military command said.
