Ukraine kills 28 in hit on bakery — Russia

Russia says Ukraine killed at least 28 people, including nine women and a child, when its armed forces struck a bakery and restaurant in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine with Western-supplied rockets.

Russian-backed officials said Ukraine struck the bakery in the city of Lysychansk on Saturday with a US-made high-mobility artillery rocket system (Himars).

Emergency workers worked through the night searching for survivors in the rubble of the shattered Adriatic Restaurant on Moskovska Street, where Russian officials said a bakery had been set up for civilians.

“The armed forces of Ukraine opened fire on a bakery in Lysychansk,” said Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the Luhansk region, which is now controlled by Russian forces.

Pasechnik said the bakery was crowded with civilians when it was struck. Russia’s emergency ministry said 10 people were pulled from the rubble alive. Four more are in an “extremely grave condition”, the ministry said, adding it is still searching for people.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the attack. Reuters was unable to verify what arms had been used in the attack.

Russia took control of swathes of eastern Ukraine after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion in February 2022, triggering the biggest land war in Europe since World War 2.

Russia now controls about 18% of its neighbour — and considers the land it holds part of Russia. Ukraine and the West say they will not accept the annexation of that territory.

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, saying the West should ask why its financial support to Kyiv is being used to kill civilians.

“According to preliminary data, the strike was carried out using Western weapons,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. “EU citizens should know how their taxes are used — to buy deadly weapons systems and send them to the Kyiv regime, which uses them to kill civilians.”

From the design and colour of the wrecked building and a sign matching file imagery, Reuters was able to confirm the location of a video the Russian emergencies ministry shared. On Google Maps it matches the Adriatic Restaurant on Moskovska Street, Lysychansk.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the date of the footage or of any other details of the report coming out of an area Russia annexed in July 2022. Only about a tenth of Lysychansk’s pre-war population of 110,000 remain in the city, according to Ukrainian officials.

Though Ukraine took back a chunk of territory from Russian forces in 2022, its 2023 counteroffensive failed to make a dent in fortified Russian lines, and there is a debate among Kyiv’s Western backers on how Ukraine should fight on.

In the past month, Russian forces have grabbed 140km² of Ukrainian territory, according to the Belfer Centre at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

EU CITIZENS SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR TAXES ARE USED — TO BUY WEAPONS SYSTEMS [WHICH KYIV USES TO KILL CIVILIANS]