At least three people were killed and 25 wounded after a Russian missile hit a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday.
The head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, Andriy Yermak, reported on Telegram that at least 25 people were injured, including a child.
The missile struck a restaurant and shopping center in the city center shortly after 8 p.m., according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
Emergency services continued to search the vandalized building for victims Tuesday night.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry warned that civilians may be trapped under the rubble.
Kramatorsk is a major city west of the front lines in the Donetsk province and a likely key target in any Russian advance to move west to capture the entire region.
The city has been a frequent target of Russian attacks, including an attack on the city’s train station in April last year, which killed 63 people.
Separately, President Joe Biden told Zelensky on Sunday that the United States “will continue to support Ukraine and provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend against Russian aggression,” the spokesman said.
The missile attacks came as Vladimir Putin told Russian military leaders they had avoided an all-out “civil war” by persuading mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to abort his armed march on Saturday.
Speaking in the Kremlin on Tuesday, the Russian president told up to 2,500 members of the military and security forces who had saved the country from chaos: “They defended the constitutional order, life, security and freedom of our citizens. They have saved our Motherland from turmoil. In fact, they have stopped a civil war.”
Russia plunged into a crisis on Saturday after Wagner’s forces left Ukraine and began moving hundreds of miles toward Moscow in a “march for justice.”
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