Fourteen-year-old twin sisters were among at least 11 people killed in a Russian missile strike on a popular pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine.
Another girl, aged 17, was among the bodies pulled from the rubble following the attack on the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, which turned the restaurant into pile of twisted beams. Around 60 people were wounded, with an eight-month-old baby suffering head wounds.
The strike, along with others across Ukraine into early on Wednesday, show that the Kremlin is not easing up on its aerial bombardment of the country, despite the armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group that shook Russia over the weekend.
A psychologist of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, centre, hugs a woman after the strike— (AP)
Sisters Anna and Yulia Aksenchenko would have turned 15 in September, Kramatorsk city council's education department said in a Facebook post under a picture of the two girls smiling for the camera.
“Russian missiles stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels,” it said in a Telegram post. "We share the grief of your family and together with you we bow our heads in deep sorrow.”
Valentyna, a 64-year-old woman who declined to give her surname, said: “I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here. Everything has been blown out there,” said. “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.
The attack also damaged 18 multistory buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping centre, an administrative building and a recreational building, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Rescuers were still searching for bodies and more survivors on Wednesday, Mr Kyrylenko told national television that people were visible under the rubble. Their condition was unknown, he said, but “we are experienced in removing rubble”.
At least 11 people have killed— (AP)
At least eight people had been rescued alive from the rubble on Wednesday. A woman called Natalia had told the AFP news agency that her half-brother Nikita, 23, was inside near the pizza oven. “They can’t get him out, he was covered by debris,” she said.
Kramatorsk is a frontline city in the eastern Donetsk region that houses the Ukrainian army's regional headquarters and is a key military logistics hub. Last year, about six weeks after the start of war, dozens of civilians were killed in a Russian missile strike on a train station in the city.
The Pizzaria 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.
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 Ukraine's National Police later said Iskander short-range ballistic missiles were used.
The restaurant was destroyed in the attack— (AP)
The Security Service of Ukraine said it had detained a man, an employee of a transportation company, suspected of filming the restaurant for the Russians and informing them about its popularity.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, 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 to present.
Russia has insisted during the war that it doesn't aim at civilian targets, although its air strikes have killed many civilians. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeated that claim on Wednesday. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed its forces hit a facility used by Ukrainian army officers in Kramatorsk but did not mention the pizza restaurant that was struck.
Rescuers and volunteers work to rescue people from under the rubble— (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
The strikes follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to regain control following the 24-hour mutiny by the Wagner group and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, which ended in a last-minute deal as the group's forces marched on Moscow – eventually turning around at 125 miles outside the capital.
Mr Prigozhin went into exile in neighboring Belarus on Tuesday, according to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, after Russia said he wouldn't face charges for the revolt, although his whereabouts have not been independently confirmed.
As for Mr Putin, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that it was clear the Russian leader had been weakened by the revolt, but it's “hard to tell” to what extent.
“He's clearly losing the war in [Ukraine]," Mr Biden said of Mr Putin before departing Washington for Chicago, referring to the Iraq war by mistake. “He's losing the war at home and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” he added. The secretary of state Antony Blinken, said that the biggest impediment now to negotiating peace to end the war in Ukraine is "Putin's conviction that he can outlast Ukraine and he can outlast all of us”.
The outlook from Ukrainian officials is simpler. “I think the countdown [on Mr Putin's leadership] has started," said Andriy Yermak, an adviser to President Zelensky said, the BBC reported.
There has been an expectation in some quarters that Ukraine would seek to take advantage of the turmoil in Russia, pushing on with its counteroffensive aimed at retaking its territory from Russian forces. There doesn't appear to have been an added push across the front, and Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has told the Financial Times that the country has not yet reached “the main event” of its offensive.
“When it happens, you will all see it. Everyone will see everything,” Mr Reznikov said.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
