(Kyiv) A Russian missile struck an apartment building in central Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring three others in one of Ukraine’s main urban strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region, which fight against the invasion of Moscow, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said six apartment buildings were damaged by the blast and rescue operations were continuing. He uploaded a video showing gaping holes in the facade of the low-rise building that suffered the worst damage.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office and regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also reported on the attack, posting photos of the building in front of which there are mounds of rubble.
The war, which broke out after the launch of the Russian invasion in February 2022, has claimed many civilian casualties. Tuesday’s victims are among six civilians killed and 30 injured in 24 hours, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“Russian troops are hitting residential buildings, schools and hospitals, leaving towns burning and in ruins,” the region’s governor, Kyrylenko, told Ukrainian television. The Russians mark every meter of their advance in the region not only with their own blood, but also with the (lost) lives of civilians. ยป
Kramatorsk is home to the local headquarters of the Ukrainian army. Ukrainian authorities say it has been a regular target of Russian bombings and other attacks in the past.
Last April, a missile attack on the city’s train station, attributed to Moscow by Kyiv and a large part of the international community, left several dozen dead and more than 100 injured.
Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal aimed at ending the fighting, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Kyiv’s refusal to start talks left Moscow with only military options.
Beijing added that its friendship with Russia was “boundless” and refused to criticize the invasion of Moscow, or even call it an invasion.
However, pursuit of Moscow’s goals in Ukraine has been hampered by war mismanagement and a lack of resources after it was defeated late last year in a Ukrainian counteroffensive, military analysts say. .
The British Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that Russia’s artillery ammunition shortages “have probably worsened to the point that extremely punitive shell rationing is in force on many parts of the front.”
This lack, he added, has “most certainly been one of the main reasons why no Russian formation has recently been able to carry out operationally significant offensive action”.