The death toll from Saturday’s strike blamed on Ukraine on a bakery in the occupied town of Lyssychansk, in the east of the country, rose to 28 dead, including a child, Russian emergency services announced on Sunday. Lysychansk, in the Lugansk region, fell to Russian forces in the summer of 2022 after a violent battle. The front in eastern Ukraine has barely moved in months, but fighting remains bloody and bombings have intensified on both sides this winter.
Russian emergency services have indicated that search operations are continuing in Lyssychansk, after having been on the job all night to find victims under the ruins of the bakery. “Approximately 65% of the destroyed structure was dismantled (…) Unfortunately, 28 people, including a child, died,” the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram on Sunday.
The day before, the same source had published a video of rescuers working in the dark, extracting a body from the rubble before discovering an injured woman who was evacuated on a stretcher. Rescuers have so far rescued 10 people from the rubble, according to the ministry.
Busy bakery
On Telegram, Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed governor of Lugansk, announced a day of mourning in this occupied territory on Sunday. The day before, he accused Kiev forces of targeting a busy bakery that he said is known for having fresh bread on weekends. A man in “serious condition” was hospitalized in the city of Lugansk, according to pro-Russian authorities.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti published a video of a destroyed building, where we also see rescuers pulling a completely crushed car out of the rubble. The one-story building bore a large sign with the name “Adriatic Restaurant” and appeared completely destroyed, reduced to rubble.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Western weapons had been used in the bombing and said it hoped for “swift and unconditional condemnation” of the attack from international organizations. Lysychansk, located 15 km from Ukrainian-controlled territory, had a population of 111,000 people before the Russian offensive began. Russian forces took control of it in the summer of 2022, as did its twin city of Severodonetsk, after one of the most brutal battles since the start of the offensive in February 2022.
Drones shot down
On the Ukrainian side, the air force declared on Saturday that it had shot down nine of the 14 drones launched by Russia in southern and central Ukraine during the night from Friday to Saturday. Most of the Iranian-made Shahed drones targeted “energy infrastructure” in the central Dnipro region, where thousands of people were left without electricity, according to the same source. The power outages mainly affected Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Since beginning its offensive in Ukraine, Russia has targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands without heat during an intense campaign last year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday congratulated his troops for striking Moscow’s forces deeply, “both on land and at sea.”
The statement comes two days after Kiev announced it had destroyed a Russian warship off the coast of Crimea, and as a fire hit a major refinery in the Volgograd region in southwest Russia on Saturday, after a drone attack claimed by Ukraine.
This latest attack did not cause any casualties and the flames were extinguished quickly, according to local authorities. Owned by the giant Lukoil, the refinery claims on its website to be “the largest producer of petroleum products in the Southern Federal District”, which brings together eight regions in southwest Russia. Since the start of the offensive against kyiv in February 2022, Russian territory has been regularly targeted by strikes and drone attacks attributed to kyiv.