A Russian missile attack on a pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 11 people, including three teenagers, and left more than 60 people injured.
Authorities in the city have named 14-year-old twins, Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, as being among the dead. In a Telegram post, the city's council extended its condolences to the parents of the girls, saying that "a Russian rocket stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels". Another girl, aged 17, was also killed
"We share the grief of your family and together with you we bow our heads in deep sorrow," the city council said.
What happened in the attack?
The Pizza RIA restaurant was popular with both locals, as well as aid workers and journalists – and was said to be crowded when it was hit on Tuesday evening.
"I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here.... Everything has been blown out there," said Valentyna, a 64-year-old woman who declined to give her surname. "None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century," she told Reuters.
Police said around 60 people were injured in the strike, which turned the restaurant into a pile of twisted beams.
Emergency services posted pictures online of rescue teams sifting through the site with cranes and other equipment.
Search and rescue efforts continue after the Russian missile attack— (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Donetsk regional governor – the area where Kramatorsk is located – Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that people were visible under the rubble. Their condition was unknown, he said, but "we are experienced in removing rubble".
Video footage on military Telegram channels showed one man, his head bleeding, receiving first aid on the pavement.
Eight people had been rescued alive from the rubble and at least three more were believed to be trapped, Veronika Bakha, the spokeswoman for the Donetsk region emergency services said.
The attack also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, the regional governor, Mr Kyrylenko, said.
Why Kramatorsk?
Russia has been keeping up an aerial assault across Ukraine for months. Kramatorsk is a major city west of the frontlines in Donetsk province, a key logistics hub. It would likely be a key objective in any Russian advance westward seeking to capture all of the region.
The city has been a frequent target of Russian attacks, including a strike on the town's railway station in April 2022 that killed dozens. It was one of the worst single air strikes of the war. There were at least two strikes on apartment buildings and other civilian sites earlier this year.
Officials initially blamed the strike in Kramatorsk on an S-300 missile, a surface-to-air weapon that Russia's forces have repurposed for loosely targeted strikes on cities, but the National Police later said Iskander short-range ballistic missiles were used.
Russia denies targeting civilian sites in its invasion of Ukraine – which began in February 2022 – a claim rubbished by Ukrainian officials and Western allies of Kyiv.
Kramatorsk's position in the Donetsk region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex last September but does not fully control. Russia annexed the region of Crimea almost a decade ago. Ukrainian-held parts of the partially occupied provinces have been hit especially hard by Russian bombardment.
The Kremlin demands that Kyiv recognize the annexations, while Kyiv has ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories. Kyiv recently launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive to take back occupied territory.
What other strikes have there been in the last 24 hours?
A second missile hit a village on the fringes of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, injuring five. A Russian missile also hit a cluster of buildings in Kremenchuk, about 230 miles west in central Ukraine, exactly a year after an attack on a shopping mall there that killed at least 20. No casualties were reported in the latest attack.
Rescuers and volunteers work to rescue people from under the rubble— (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
On Wednesday morning, the head of the Kharkiv region said three civilians have been killed in Russian shelling.
"Unfortunately, as a result of this shelling, three civilians in the village of Vovchanski Khutory were killed near their homes," governor Oleh Synehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
What has been the Ukrainian response?
On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities arrested Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct the missile strike. The Security Service of Ukraine alleged in a message on Telegram that the man had filmed the restaurant for the Russians and informed them about its popularity.
Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement: “The agent of the Russian Federation will definitely answer to the Ukrainian court. But his detention is also a signal to all other adjusters and traitors who work for the enemy. Remember – the punishment is inevitable!”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message on Tuesday that the attacks showed that Russia "deserved only one thing as a consequence of what it has done – defeat and a tribunal".
Ukraine has been pushing for a war crimes tribunal to deal with Russia's actions in Ukraine, and have been gathering evidence.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
