At least six people have been killed and more than 30 are feared trapped after Russian rockets hit a five-storey apartment block in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, collapsing the building, the region’s governor said.
Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike took place on Saturday evening in Chasiv Yar, a town about 20 kilometres southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they advance slowly westwards.
The governor said six people had been confirmed killed and five wounded, and that according to information from residents, at least 34 people were likely trapped in the ruins. Rescuers have made contact with two people who are under the wreckage, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Donetsk region is one of two provinces along with Luhansk that make up the Donbas region, where separatist rebels have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014. Last week, Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.
On Saturday, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were managing to “raise true hell” in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
Serhiy Haidai said Russia launched over 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes in the province the previous night and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.
After the seizure of Lysychansk, some analysts predicted Moscow’s troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.
But Haidai said that so far there had been “no operational pause announced by the enemy”, which was “still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before”. Later he added that the Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.
Ukrainian authorities said the Russian army continued to bomb Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and northeastern Kharkiv regions on Saturday. According to officials, Moscow is preparing “new actions” after four and a half months of war.