|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
(BBC)
At least 15 people have been killed and about 20 more are feared buried under rubble after Russian rockets struck an apartment block in Chasiv Yar, a town in eastern Ukraine, officials say.
Five victims have been brought out alive. The death toll was given by a Ukrainian emergency services official.
One side of the five-storey building was ripped apart, leaving a mountain of rubble. Chasiv Yar is near the city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region.
Donetsk is the focus of a Russian push.
The region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the destruction was caused by Russian Uragan rockets.
A survivor called Lyudmila told Reuters news agency “we ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen.
“The second, I do not even remember, there was a flash, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.”
On Saturday the Russian defence ministry reported that its forces had destroyed a hangar storing US M777 howitzers in Chasiv Yar.
Veronika Bakhal of Donetsk emergency services told the BBC at least 20 people were believed to still be under the rubble in Chasiv Yar, including one child.
She said: “Language contact with three persons under the rubble has been established and is being maintained.
“That is, we know for sure that there are people alive. Measures are now being taken to save them.”
She also said another five-storey apartment block had been hit nearby – in that case the roof had been partly destroyed and firefighters had extinguished a blaze there. No bodies were recovered at that site, she said.
Ukrainian forces have been reinforcing defences around Kramatorsk and Slovyansk – two cities in Donetsk in the path of Russia’s offensive.
Having captured Luhansk region, the Russians aim to take the rest of Donetsk. Both regions comprise the industrial Donbas, which President Vladimir Putin claims to be part of Russia.
The Chasiv Yar civilian death toll is one of the highest in Donetsk so far, Ms Bakhal said, though Russian shelling of Mariupol caused more destruction and casualties.
