Ukraine: 6 dead in a rocket attack on a building

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian rockets struck the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, destroying a five-story building and killing at least six people, the region’s governor said Sunday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said around three dozen people could be trapped in the rubble. Rescuers have made contact with two people who are under the wreckage, he said on the Telegram messaging app.

Kyrylenko said the town of about 12,000 was hit by Uragan rockets, which are fired from truck-mounted systems. Chasiv Yar lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Kramatorsk, a town expected to be a major target for Russian forces as they advance west.

The Donetsk region is one of two provinces along with Luhansk that make up the Donbass region, where separatist rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Last week Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.

Russian forces are raising « real hell » in Donbass, despite assessments that they were taking an operational pause, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Saturday.

After the capture of Lysychansk, some analysts predicted that Moscow’s troops would likely take some time to rearm and regroup.

But “until now, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. It is still attacking and bombarding our lands with the same intensity as before,” Haidai said. He later said that the Russian bombardment of Luhansk had been suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.

The Associated Press

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