MOSCOW, Russia: A Ukrainian attack on the eastern occupied city of Lysychansk killed at least 11 people, Russian officials said Saturday, adding that more people were believed to be under the rubble as rescue operations continue.
Lysychansk, in the Lugansk region, fell to Russian forces after a brutal battle six months into Moscow’s offensive in 2022.
Russian officials said Ukraine had struck a building housing a popular bakery.
“Unfortunately, 11 people died,” Russia’s emergency situations ministry said on Telegram.
It said that rescuers “saved 10 people and handed them to doctors”, and that rescue operations would go on into the night.
The Moscow-installed governor of Lugansk, Leonid Pasechnik, said earlier that Kyiv had targeted a bakery that was known to have fresh bread on weekends.
RIA Novosti published a video of a heavily damaged building, with emergency workers pulling out an entirely crushed car.
The one-storey building had a large sign on it that read “Restaurant Adriatic” and appeared entirely destroyed and covered in rubble.
Moscow-installed authorities said one wounded man in “serious condition” was taken to hospital in the city of Lugansk, where three other wounded people would also be taken.
Pasechnik said police and emergency services were at the scene and trying to “rescue victims with special equipment”.
Lysychansk had a population of around 111,000 people before Moscow’s offensive.
Russia took control of it and its twin city of Severodonetsk in summer 2022 after some of the most brutal battles of its almost two-year offensive. —AFP
