The terrifying moment Ukrainian civilians dived for cover during a deadly Russian missile strike has been captured on camera.
People were going about their lives in Vinnytsia, a city in west central Ukraine, when Moscow’s submarines unleashed a horrifying bombardment of Kalibr missiles.
The missile attack, around 10.50am local time, killed 23 people including three children, and injured at least 100 people.
Despite Russian claims the savage strike was aimed towards Ukrainian military, footage shows cyclists and pedestrians affected.
The camera footage shows an open square, as two pedestrians walk together across it.
More Ukrainians can be seen walking out in the sun when suddenly the missile strikes and chaos quickly takes hold.
People duck and cower, some diving to the ground as others try to run. But it is seemingly followed by a second, closer missile strike that hits with such force people are knocked over and one woman tumbles off her bike.
As one man dives for cover beside a rack of e-bikes, the Ukrainian civilians who were in the midst of crossing the road flee for their lives and a man and his dog who are running as well, fall hard to the ground.
Then, adding to the horror on show, a huge shadow sweeps across the square plunging them into darkness before some debris rains from the sky and the few people left in shot run for their lives.
The city of 370,000 sits far from the frontline of the war in Donbas but its inhabitants couldn’t escape the horror of Russia ’s invasion.
Separate CCTV shows the inside of a shop as the Kalibr missiles struck the office block within the city in the same attack.
The sheer force of the rocket attack throws the customer and shop assistant to the floor as the windows are shattered.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the death toll in Vinnytsia could rise in a video address.
He said: “Unfortunately, this is not the final number. Debris clearance continues. Dozens of people are reported missing. There are seriously injured (people) among those hospitalised,”
Russia repeated its claims it does not target civilians and said that the brutal attack struck a meeting between commanders from the Ukrainian Air Force and a foreign arms supplier.
However, among the victims of its attack were three children and it has raised fears the further strikes on civilians could follow on from it.
Following on from taking two key cities in the east of Ukraine in late June and early July, more recent days have been characterised by Putin’s offensive stalling.
Ukraine claims that Moscow’s forces have briefly paused their operation before they push on with the offensive. But this has not stopped them from maintaining aerial attacks.
In their latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence revealed that over 2.5million Ukrainians have been evacuated to Russia as Putin’s forces face continual claims they are forcibly deporting people.
It added: “in many cases Ukrainians have reportedly been mistreated in filtration camps set up by Russia.”
In the Donbas, where the fighting is most intense, Russia and pro-Russian separatist forces claimed to have entered the outskirts of Siversk.
If true, there are concerns it would open the way for the forces to seize the city and move onto Bakhmut once it is secured.
This is because Bakhmat “has long been regarded as a key target for Russian forces, sitting about 10 miles from the border with Luhansk province, which is now entirely occupied by Russia” according to the Ministry of Defence.
Fighting continues to be slow and elicit little progress either way as the death toll continues to mount and diplomatic options seemingly offer no solution.
In the aftermath of the most recent strike, Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed that up to 70 per cent of Russian missile strikes were deliberately inflicted onto “peaceful” Ukrainian cities.
Oleksandr Motuzianyk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s ministry of defence, said in remarks quoted by Ukrinform: “Yesterday’s insidious criminal missile attack on the centre of a peaceful city in Ukraine is yet another fact of Russia’s absolutely proven genocide against Ukraine.
“This is the extermination of Ukrainians as a nation, this is an attempt to break the spirit of Ukrainians and lower the level of their resistance.
“Only 30% of the total attacks by Russian forces engaged military targets, he said, while the remaining were targeted at peaceful cities such as Mariupol, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.”
He urged others to recognise Russia as a “terrorist state”.
