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Russian Missiles Hit Crowded Kramatorsk City Center, Killing At Least Four

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service June 27, 2023

A Russian missile strike on a commercial area in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has killed at least four people and wounded 42, according to regional police.

The State Emergency Service said a 15-year-old child is among the dead and a child born in 2022 is among the injured.

The head of the Donetsk military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, told Ukrainian television that missiles struck when the area was crowded with civilians.

Pictures posted on social media showed parts of some buildings reduced to rubble and pieces of the shattered buildings scattered on the ground. Rescue operations had to be stopped because of continued threats of missile strikes, according to an RFE/RL correspondent.

The military administration in Donetsk said that two rockets hit private homes and a pizzeria around 8 p.m. local time. The building was reduced to a twisted web of metal beams.

Kyrylenko said numerous houses, shops, cafes, and other businesses were damaged near the place of impact.

Kramatorsk is a major city in the Donetsk region and a likely key objective in any Russian advance to the west. It has been a frequent target of Russian attacks. It was hit on May 2 by rockets fired from a Tornado multiple-rocket launcher. Russian forces claimed a railcar full of ammunition was destroyed in that strike.

In April last year, 61 people were killed in a Russian strike on the Kramatorsk main railway station.

Moscow denies shelling the civilian population in Ukraine despite evidence and testimony to the contrary. As of June 18, the UN confirmed 9,083 civilian deaths in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-kramatorsk- russian-missiles-crowded-4-dead-civilians/32478461.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.