A Russian missile hit a crowded pizza restaurant at dinner time in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 10 people, including three children, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. More than 50 were wounded.
The Ria Lounge restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk took a direct hit on Tuesday night and the blast blew out the windows and the walls and brought down the roof. Rescue crews searched through the night and into the morning, fearing more people could be buried in the debris.
The restaurant was popular with local residents and was also a hangout for members of Ukraine's military, as well as journalists and aid workers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that "each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat."
Russia fires missiles at Ukrainian cities behind the front lines almost every night. Kramatorsk is about 20 miles west of Bakhmut, the town the Russians captured last month in the heaviest fighting of the war.
Ukraine began to launch its much-anticipated counteroffensive earlier this month, and its troops have advanced to the north and south of Bakhmut, though the Russians still hold the town itself.
