At least 15 people were killed and 24 feared buried after Russian missiles hit a city in eastern Ukraine, destroying part of a five-storey apartment building, officials said on Sunday.
Photos and a video of what appeared to be the aftermath of the attack in Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk province showed grim-faced rescuers atop a huge pile of rubble. They sifted through broken bricks, mangled metal wiring and crumbled cement beams next to a half-collapsed building.
The images were shared by Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk Oblast in the eastern Donbas region, and the Interior Ministry.
“The search and rescue operation continues,” Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television. “We have more proof of Russia’s crimes, that they shell residential areas of any community, whether it’s close to the front lines or not.”
Kyrylenko said at least 24 people, including a 9-year-old child, might still be under the wreckage, and rescuers managed to establish contact with two of them, according to the governor.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said 15 people had so far been confirmed killed in the attack.
In the video, heavy machinery can be heard whirring as rescuers inspect tiny crevices in the ruins. Another video shared by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry shows rescuers carrying white bags containing what appeared to be bodies.
“The Russians hit a high-rise apartment building with civilians again,” chief of staff to Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, tweeted.
NBC News could not confirm the Ukrainian officials’ version of events.
July 5, 202200:53
There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. NBC News reached out to Russia’s defense ministry for comment.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of launching a barrage of missile strikes on its cities in recent weeks, including on a busy shopping center in central Ukraine last month, and targeting civilians.
While Moscow denies targeting civilians in Ukraine, its forces have been behind the heavy bombardment of population centers such as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sievierodonetsk.
Saturday’s missile strikes, part of Moscow‘s drive to conquer the Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the historically pro-Russian east of the country, came as its forces appeared to be gearing up for an intensification of its drive west.
The missile strike in Chasiv Yar comes as Ukrainian military reported clashes with Russian troops on frontlines in the east and south on Sunday.
Military analysts have told NBC News Russia is likely to escalate its offensive in the east after it gained full control of the Luhansk province earlier this month, setting the stage for the next phase of the invasion.
Luhansk, along with the Donetsk province, forms Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas, which has become the primary focus of the invasion for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Before the February invasion, Moscow-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions fought Ukrainians forces for eight years in a grinding conflict that had claimed thousands of lives and was used by the Kremlin as a premise to launch the conflict.
After celebrating a major victory in Luhansk last week, there were signs Russia may be gearing up for a decisive new assault on its neighbor.
The British military said in its daily update on the situation in Ukraine Saturday that Russia was moving its reserve forces from across the country and assembling them near Ukraine for future offensive operations.
It came after the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based military think tank, last week said Russian forces in Ukraine were conducting an “operational pause” while still engaging in limited ground attacks to set conditions for more significant offensive operations in the future.
On Thursday, Putin warned that his army “hasn’t really started” to fight in Ukraine yet.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
