Kyiv stated that two Russian missile strikes on the east Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including one on a residential building, killed at least five people and injured many more.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Moscow had targeted an ordinary residential building, and he published footage of a typical Soviet-era five-story building with its top floor demolished.
Ukraine stated that rescue operations were ongoing.
Pokrovsk is around 70 kilometres (43 miles) northwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk and about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the frontline.
“Five people died”, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Igor Klymenko, stated on Telegram.
“The second attack killed a high-ranking Donetsk region emergency official”, he added.
He later stated that the number of injured had risen to 31.
“Among them are 19 police officers, five rescuers, and one child”, he continued.
He went on to say that the wreckage was still being cleared and that search and rescue operations are ongoing.
Zelensky had previously warned of victims in the strike and had shared a video of people cleaning rubble from the building.
It showed individuals assisting persons who were lying on the ground outside a building, as well as an average car covered in rubble.
The video also showed a second building that appeared to have been severely destroyed.
The strikes, according to Donetsk region chief Pavlo Kyrylenko, damaged two private sector residential buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, shops, and administrative buildings.
He issued a warning about the threat of repeated attacks and asked residents to take shelter.
Pokrovsk had a population of roughly 60,000 people before the war.
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