A rocket attack in Ukraine killed at least 15 people, with almost two dozen more possibly trapped under the rubble as authorities work to clear the site.
The Russian attack occurred overnight Saturday in the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, hitting an apartment complex. Regional emergency services worked to rescue victims from the rubble throughout Sunday, saying in the afternoon that 24 or more people may still be trapped under debris. The emergency service said that workers have remained in contact with at least three people under the rubble.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the region, said that Russian forces fired the rockets from trucks. He identified them as Uragan rockets, a Soviet-era design and model.
The attack presents another contradiction of Russian claims that the military is hitting only targets of military value. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a Telegram post called the attack "terrorist" activity and demanded that other nations label Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism," according to Reuters.
The Saturday night rocket assault is the latest in a recent burst of high-casualty attacks on civilian structures. At least 19 people died when a Russian missile hit a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk in late June and 21 people were killed when an apartment building and recreation area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region this month.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai on Saturday said that Russian forces are raising "true hell" in the region.
At least 30 people are still trapped in the rubble of a Chasiv Yar apartment building in eastern Ukraine, according to an AFP update on the Russian missile attack late last night that killed at least 15.
Journalists from the news agency were given a tour of the wreckage by survivors. One woman who had ventured inside to see what she could salvage from her apartment retrieved a blue bird, still in its cage.The strike late Saturday evening destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of town, which is inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
Ukraine’s emergency services said Sunday they have rescued five people from the rubble so far and have made contact with three others still trapped alive beneath the ruins. Another man was pulled alive from the rubble Sunday night.
Cranes and excavators worked alongside the rescue teams to clear away the ruins of one building, its sides completely shorn off by the impact of the strike. The rescuers kept on working in the rain despite the dangerous conditions.