Moscow late Monday night struck an apartment building in the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine that claimed at least seven lives, triggering a rescue operation for survivors, as Kiyv’s forces ramped up their assault on Russian port infrastructure.
The city of Pokrovsk — which is located at a distance of 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the eastern frontline — where Moscow said it is gaining ground and repelling Ukrainian attacks.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region’s military administration said: “Two missiles — launched 40 minutes apart — damaged residential buildings, a hotel, cafes, shops and administrative buildings Monday.”
Local rescuers rescuers were evacuating survivors from the rubble of a five-storey building, and carrying the wounded into ambulances.
“Seven people were killed in the strike Monday evening and 81 were wounded, including two children,” Kyrylenko said, as the Russia-Ukraine war intensifies with every passing day.
“Those killed included a high-ranking emergency official of Donetsk region,” said Igor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs.
“We are resuming the demolition of rubble,” Klymenko said early Tuesday after the rescuers “were forced to suspend work for the night due to the high threat of repeated shelling.”
The building’s upper floors were damaged.
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In late June, Russia struck the Ria Pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk, killing 13 and wounding dozens more.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Moscow had struck a residential building, and shared a video on social media of civilians helping wounded people and rescuers clearing rubble from a building that had lost its top floor.
The footage also showed a second building that appeared heavily damaged.
Moscow advancing in Russia-Ukraine war
Also Monday, Russia said it had recently advanced three kilometres towards Kupiansk in northeastern Ukraine around 150 kilometres north of Pokrovsk and a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border.
Kupiansk and its surroundings in the Kharkiv region were retaken by Ukrainian forces in September, but Moscow has renewed its assault on the area.
“Over the past three days, the advance of Russian troops… amounted to 11 kilometres along the front and more than three kilometres deep into the enemy’s defence,” Moscow’s defence ministry said.
It said that it had “improved” its standing along the front line and continued to repel Ukrainian counterattacks.
“Russia struck a blood transfusion centre Saturday, in Kruglyakivka — near Kupiansk — with a guided air bomb, killing at least two people and wounding four,” Kyiv said.
Two more people in Kruglyakivka died Monday when Russia attacked with “four guided aerial bombs”, according to Oleg Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region.
In mid-July, Ukraine said that it was in a “defensive position” in the Kupiansk area as the Russian army launched an offensive there.
Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has made modest advances in the face of stiff resistance from Russian forces.
