Missile massacre
At least 15 die in Russian strike on block of flats
AT least 15 people were killed and 24 more were feared trapped under rubble after a Russian rocket attack on a block of flats in eastern Ukraine.
A child was among those yesterday feared to be buried in the wreckage of the five-storey block in Chasiv Yar, a town in the Donetsk area of the fiercely contested Donbas region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, called the strike “another terrorist attack” and said Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism as a result.
One survivor, named only as Lyudmila, said: “We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen. The second I do not even remember, there was a flash, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.”
As she spoke, rescuers removed a body in a white sheet and cleared rubble using a crane as well as their hands.
Veronika Bakhal, of Donetsk emergency services, said: “Language contact with three persons under the rubble has been established. There are people alive. Measures are being taken to save them.”
Another survivor of the strike, who gave her name as Venera, said she had wanted to save her two kittens.
She said: “I was thrown into the bathroom, it was all chaos, I was in shock, all covered in blood. By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full up of rubble, three floors fell down. I never found the kittens under the rubble.”
Rescuers had cleared 99 tons of rubble by yesterday afternoon following Saturday night’s attack, said Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Emergency services said the death toll given yesterday was certain to rise.
Another five-storey apartment block had been hit nearby but no bodies were recovered there. Mr Kyrylenko said the destruction in Chasiv Yar was caused by
Russian Uragan rockets. The town with a population of 12,000 people is near Kramatorsk, expected to be a major target of Russian forces moving west.
Ukraine also reported clashes with Russian troops on fronts in the east and south. Ukraine fired missiles at the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson. Serhiy Bratchuk, a Ukrainian official based in the port city of Odesa, said their forces “struck the occupiers’ base in Kherson”. Russia claimed a hospital was damaged.
A Russian missile struck Druzhkivka, another town in the Donetsk area, amid shelling of population centres.
Four civilians also died in another strike on the nearby town of Siversk. In
Druzhkivka, a supermarket was destroyed and a crater appeared nearby.
Tyrant Vladimir Putin’s regime denies deliberately attacking civilians.
It said its forces struck Ukrainian army hangars storing Us-produced M777 howitzers near Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region.
Russia is moving reserve forces from across the country to positions near Ukraine for future operations.
But many reinforcements are “deploying with obsolete or inappropriate equipment”, according British intelligence.
Russian forces were gathering in the area of the village of Bilohorivka, said Luhansk region Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
He said: “The enemy is shelling the surrounding settlements, carrying out air strikes, but it is still unable to quickly occupy the entire Luhansk region.”
Moscow claimed last weekend that it had taken control over all of Luhansk province, which together with the Donetsk province makes up the Donbas region neighbouring Russia.
British Army bases are now being used to train Ukrainians, with aims to train up to 10,000 over the coming months.
I was thrown into the bathroom, it was all chaos, I was covered in blood
SURVIVOR VENERA TELLS OF THE STRIKE IN CHASIV YAR