The death toll from a Russian strike on an apartment block of in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk climbed to 11 on Saturday as Moscow claimed advances near embattled Bakhmut.
Sloviansk lies in a part of the eastern Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control.
On Friday, it was struck by seven missiles which hit five buildings, five homes, a school and an administrative building, Kyiv said.
Photo: AFP
“The number of victims of the shelling of Sloviansk has risen to 11 people,” Veronika Bakhal, a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service in the region, said in televised remarks.
A previous toll reported nine dead, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble, but died on his way to hospital, and 21 wounded.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska sent her condolences to the child’s family during this “indescribable grief.”
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russia for “brutally shelling” residential buildings and “killing people in broad daylight.”
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists on Friday saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of the typical Soviet-era housing block, and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.
The street below — including a playground — was covered in concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from schoolbooks and children’s drawings.
In southern Ukraine on Saturday, a 48-year-old woman and her 28-year-old daughter were killed in Russian shelling in the city of Kherson, the regional administration said on Telegram.
Sloviansk lies 45km northwest of the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut, the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s invasion.
Russian troops have been battling since last summer to capture the town in eastern Ukraine, which has taken on huge symbolic importance, even though analysts say it has little strategic value.
Kyiv has said the battle for the town is key to holding back Russian forces along the entire eastern front, and Sloviansk is one of the cities that would be at risk if Kyiv loses the battle.
Russia on Saturday claimed advances on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of 70,000 people.
“Wagner assault units have successfully advanced, capturing two districts on the northern and southern outskirts of the city,” The Russian Ministry of Defense told a briefing.
The Russian Wagner mercenary group, headed by Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has spearheaded much of the fighting for the city.
The ministry said that Ukrainian troops “while retreating, are deliberately destroying city infrastructure and residential buildings in order to slow the advance” of Moscow’s forces.
AFP was unable to verify the situation on the ground.
On the diplomatic front, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva yesterday said he had discussed joint mediation for Russia’s war in Ukraine with China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), accusing the US and Europe of prolonging the conflict.
Da Silva, who was wrapping up an official visit to China and the UAE after returning for a third term in office, said the two countries and others should join a “political G20” to try to end the war.
The leftist, who has been accused of being overly cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, also said that the war was caused “by decisions made by two countries.”
“President Putin doesn’t take any initiatives to stop the war. Zelenskiy from Ukraine doesn’t take any initiatives to stop the war,” Lula, speaking through an official translator, told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
“Europe and the US continue to give their way of contribution to continue the war. So they have to sit around the table and say: ‘That’s enough,’” he said.
While in China, Lula accused Washington of “encouraging” the war by supplying weapons to Ukraine.
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