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Deadly Russian missile strike on busy pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk Deadly Russian missile strike on busy pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk
(about 4 hours later)
Reports from city in eastern Ukraine put the number of people killed at last eight including three children Four children among 10 people killed in rocket attack on packed restaurant in eastern Ukraine city
At least eight people including three children have been killed and 56 injured after two Russian rockets hit a bustling pizza restaurant in the centre of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Four children were among 10 people killed in a devastating Russian rocket attack on a packed pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
“Two rockets were fired at the city of Kramatorsk … at a food establishment in the centre of the city where there were a great number of civilians,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine’s state emergency service said at least 56 people were injured, some critically, when two Iskander missiles slammed into the cafe in the city centre on Tuesday evening, when it was full of diners. The restaurant is popular with civilians and foreign journalists.
On Wednesday morning the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said the death toll had risen from four to eight and three people had been pulled from the rubble. On Wednesday, firefighters were combing through the ruins in the hope of finding survivors buried beneath concrete debris.
“Rescuers are working through the rubble of the destroyed building and searching for people who are probably still under it,” officials of the emergency services said on the Telegram messaging app. Kramatorsk’s mayor, Oleksandr Goncharenko, said the latest victim was a boy. Writing on Telegram, he said: “Rescuers pulled a boy’s body from the rubble.”
The missile strike occurred in mid-evening at a popular shopping plaza, raising the likelihood of a high number of civilian casualties. RIA Pizza, the restaurant that was hit, is especially popular among foreign journalists who often use it as an office. The missile strike occurred at 7.32pm on Tuesday, hitting RIA Pizza and a popular shopping plaza. “Two rockets were fired at a food establishment in the centre of the city where there were a great number of civilians,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region.
Kyrylenko said authorities would work to establish the number of people killed and injured. A large crowd gathered at the scene as police officers, ambulance crews and the military worked to recover victims. As many as a dozen people were pulled from the ruins, according to witnesses.
A large crowd gathered at the scene as police officers, ambulance crews and soldiers worked to recover the victims. As many as a dozen people were pulled from the rubble, according to witnesses, but it was not clear if they were dead or alive. Among the dead named on Wednesday were twin sisters, Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, both 14. The girls were pupils at Kramatorsk’s primary school No 24 and were about to finish eighth grade. A 17-year-old girl was also killed and a baby suffered head injuries.
Video from the scene that quickly spread on Telegram showed people injured by the strike lying on the ground being treated, including an infant with a head injury. Survivors were taken to hospital in Kramatorsk. One of the restaurant’s cooks, Ruslan, 32, said there were “quite a lot of people” inside at the time. “I was lucky,” he said.
One of the restaurant’s cooks, Ruslan, 32, said there were “quite a lot of people” at the moment of the strike. “I was lucky,” he said. A woman called Natalia told Agence France-Presse 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.
A woman called Natalia told Agence France-Presse that her half-brother Nikita, 23, was inside near the pizza oven. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said Russia hit Kramatorsk with two short-range Iskander ballistic missiles. “They have a circular error probable (CEP) rating of between 30 and 70 metres, or 5-7 metres when equipped with a homing system, which means Russia was deliberately targeting civilians. Not that anyone needs any more proof of this any more,” he said.
“They can’t get him out, he was covered” by debris,” she said. “Russia deliberately targeted crowded areas,” Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, added on Telegram.
“Russia deliberately targeted crowded areas,” Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, said on Telegram. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address condemned the “brutal” attack on civilians. “Each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat and a tribunal, fair and legal trials against all Russian murderers and terrorists,” Zelenskiy said.
Asked about the attack, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said: “We condemn Russia’s brutal strikes against the people of Ukraine, which have caused widespread death and destruction and taken the lives of so many Ukrainian civilians.” Sign up to This is Europe
Kramatorsk, once a city of 150,000 inhabitants, is the last major urban centre under Ukrainian control in the east of the country. It lies about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the frontline. The most pivotal stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment
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The White House national security council, asked about the attack, said: “We condemn Russia’s brutal strikes against the people of Ukraine, which have caused widespread death and destruction and taken the lives of so many Ukrainian civilians.”
Kramatorsk, once a city of 150,000 inhabitants, is the last major urban centre under Ukrainian control in the east of the country. It lies about 30km (18 miles) from the frontline, and next to the city of Sloviansk.
While some residents have left, many have not. Restaurants and hotels have mostly closed down. The pizzeria and nearby shopping centre kept going, and are typically full of local people shopping or relaxing, as well as troops stocking up on food during breaks from the fighting.
Several photographers and correspondents were having dinner when the missiles struck. They included the Colombian novelist and journalist Héctor Abad Faciolince and his colleague Sergio Jaramillo Caro, who recently served as the high commissioner for peace in Colombia.
Both suffered minor injuries and were treated in Kramatorsk hospital. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said it had arrested a local resident who helped coordinate the strike and allegedly sent video footage of the cafe to the Russian military.