At least six people have been killed and more than 30 others are feared trapped in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, after Russian Uragan rockets hit a five-story apartment block, collapsing the building, a regional official said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk military administration, said the attack took place late on July 9 in Chasiv Yar, a town of about 12,000 inhabitants.
Rescue workers have made contact with two people who are under the wreckage, Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging app on July 10.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine’s president, said the strike was “another terrorist attack,” and that Russia should be designated as a “state sponsor of terrorism” as a result.
Multiple rocket attacks were also reported in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, not far from the Russian border.
Rockets, fired in the early hours of July 10, hit a school, a private house, and a children’s sanatorium, partially destroying the buildings, the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said. A 62-year-old man was wounded in the attacks, it said in a Telegram post.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces attacked areas near the eastern town of Slovyansk on July 10, but were forced to withdraw.
Serhiy Hayday, the governor of the eastern Luhansk region, said Russian troops were gathering in the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 kilometers east of Slovyansk.
“The enemy is … shelling the surrounding settlements, carrying out air strikes, but it is still unable to quickly occupy the entire Luhansk region,” Hayday said on Telegram.
“During the last night alone, the Russians launched seven artillery barrages and four rocket strikes,” he added.
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Last week, Russian forces captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.
