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“Everyone to the air-raid shelter!”
Sloviansk reports “massive” shelling
07/05/2022, 3:05 p.m
After taking Lysychansk, Sloviansk is the next target for Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. The mayor of the city speaks of “massive bombardment”. At least two people were killed in an attack on a market, according to Ukrainian sources.
At least two people have been killed in Russian rocket attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, according to Ukrainian sources. Seven others were injured, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. Mayor Wadym Liach had previously reported massive Russian shelling. “Slovyansk! Massive bombardment of the city. In the center, in the north. Everyone in the air raid shelters,” Liach wrote on Facebook.
According to the mayor, the attack was aimed at the city’s central market. According to AFP journalists, several rockets hit the market square and adjacent streets. The market caught fire, the fire brigade tried to put out the flames. “Once again, the Russians are deliberately targeting places where civilians are. This is terrorism, plain and simple,” Kyrylenko said.
Sloviansk, which had a population of 100,000 before the start of the Ukraine war, is apparently the next target of the Russian forces in their advance in the Donbass. The city has been under fire for days. At least six people were killed and 19 others injured in rocket attacks on Sunday. Mayor Liach had previously accused Russia of using cluster munitions in the attacks on the city. Cluster munitions are outlawed by international treaties, which Moscow has not signed.
The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly asked the civilians remaining in Sloviansk to leave the region. After taking the cities of Sievjerodonetsk and Lysychansk, the front line was only a few kilometers away from Sloviansk. On Sunday, Russia announced the capture of the nearby city of Lysychansk and thus the entire Donbass region of Luhansk.