A Russian missile attack that struck a crowded pizzeria in an eastern Ukrainian town killed at least nine people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as rescuers continued to search through the rubble of the destroyed building.
The Tuesday night attack in Kramatorsk injured another 56 people, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said, in the latest bombing raid, a tactic Russia has used extensively in the 16-month war.
Two sisters, both 14 years old, died as a result of the attack, the education department of the Kramatorsk city council said. “Russian missiles stopped the heartbeats of two angels,” he said in a Telegram post.
The other dead boy was 17 years old, according to Attorney General Andrii Kostin.
The attack, which used what authorities said were S-300 missiles, also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administration building and a recreation building, the government said. Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. . The S-300 is a surface-to-air missile that cannot hit ground targets with precision, but Russian forces have repurposed it for inaccurate attacks on cities.
Kramatorsk is a frontline city that is home to the regional headquarters of the Ukrainian Army. The pizzeria was frequented by journalists, aid workers and soldiers, as well as locals.
It is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex last September but does not fully control. Russia has also occupied Crimea since 2015.
Ukrainian-controlled parts of the partially occupied provinces have been particularly hard hit by Russian shelling and are a key barrier to resolving the war.
The Kremlin demands that kyiv recognize the annexations, while kyiv has ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops withdraw from all occupied territories. kyiv recently launched a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake occupied territory.
Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its air campaign in Ukraine as fighting continues on the front lines.
Russian forces on Monday and overnight also shelled 16 settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine’s presidential office reported.
He said a 77-year-old civilian was killed in the frontline town of Orikhiv and that Russian shelling wounded three people in a nearby village recently recaptured by Kiev.
In addition, a Russian supersonic cruise missile slammed into a cluster of holiday homes in central Ukraine, starting a fire that injured a child, the presidential office said.
