President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the attack in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region was “another terrorist attack” and that Russia should be designated as a state supporting the terrorism.
On Sunday, rescuers used a crane to lift a concrete slab and their hands to dig through the debris, while dazed residents who survived Saturday night’s attack collected their belongings and told stories of their miraculous escape .
A woman was seen exiting the destroyed building carrying an ironing board under her arm, an umbrella and a plastic shopping bag. Others were content to watch the rescue efforts, fearing the worst as the dead were removed.
“We ran to the basement, there were three impacts, the first somewhere in the kitchen,” said a local resident who gave her name Ludmila.
“The second, I don’t even remember, there was lightning, we ran to the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We stayed there all night until this morning.” Another survivor, who gave her name Venera, said she wanted to save her two kittens.
“I was thrown into the bathroom, it was chaos, I was in shock, all covered in blood,” she said, crying. “By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full of rubble, three floors had collapsed. I never found the kittens under the rubble.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of nationalists.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Putin’s war is an imperial land grab and have accused his forces of war crimes. Moscow denies attacking civilians.
Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II has killed thousands, left towns and villages in ruins and seen more than 5.5 million Ukrainians flee their country.
FIGHT FOR TERRITORY
Russia abandoned an early advance on the capital kyiv in the face of fierce resistance backed by Western armies.
Its military campaign now focuses on the south and the eastern region of Donbas, which consists of the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. The Kremlin wants to hand over control of this industrial heart to the pro-Russian separatists who have declared their independence from kyiv.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near the city of Sloviansk Donetsk but were forced to withdraw, the Ukrainian army said on Sunday.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces were assembling near the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Sloviansk.
Russia “bombs surrounding settlements, carries out airstrikes, but still cannot quickly occupy the entire Luhansk region,” he said on Telegram.
Russia claimed control of the whole of Luhansk province last weekend.
The Russian Defense Ministry said his forces had destroyed two hangars near the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk, where there were American-made M777 howitzers, which he said were used to bombard residential areas of Donetsk.
Russian news agencies quoted separatist officials as saying on Sunday that the Ukrainian army had been pounding Donetsk with NATO-compliant 155mm artillery since the morning, injuring two residents.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukrainian military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
In the south, Ukrainian forces fired missiles and artillery at Russian positions, including ammunition depots in the Chornobaivka region, the Ukrainian military command said.
On Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned civilians in the Russian-occupied Kherson region to urgently evacuate as Ukrainian armed forces were preparing a counterattack there, without giving a time frame for action. .
“I know for sure that there should be no women and children there, and that they should not become human shields,” she told national television.