Twin sisters, as young as 14, are among 10 people killed when a Russian-fired missile struck a Ukrainian restaurant Tuesday night.
At least 61 people, including an eight-month-old baby, were also injured in the attack in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, authorities said, while several people are feared to remain trapped in the rubble.
The twins killed in the attack have been identified by Iuliia Mendel, a spokeswoman for Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zeklensky, as Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, who had just graduated from eighth grade and would have celebrated their 15th birthday in September, according to The Times.
In addition, the Kramatorsk City Council reported on Telegram that a 17-year-old girl was also among those killed in the attack.
Also, 3 Colombians were injured during the “intentional” attack on the Kramatorsk restaurant; They are the Colombian writer, Héctor Abad, the former Peace Commissioner Sergio Jaramillo and the journalist Catalina Gómez.
A search-and-rescue mission continued Wednesday at the site of the restaurant, which was a pizzeria, and which was left piled with crooked beams.
The missile struck both the restaurant and the shopping mall in the city center shortly after 8:00 p.m., according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.
For its part, the Kremlin appeared to deny its involvement in the attack, claiming that “Russia only attacks military targets and not civilians.”
“So far, rescuers have recovered the bodies of 10 people from the rubble,” Veronika Bakhal, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk region’s emergency services, told Ukrainian television on Wednesday.
Eight people were pulled alive from the rubble and at least three more were believed to be trapped, it added.
The Kramatorsk City Council said on Telegram that bomb technicians, investigators, criminologists, paramedics and patrolmen were still working at the scene of the tragedy, while the victims and their families received “medical and psychological help”, according to the British outlet Evening Standard. .
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.
The missile attacks come 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.
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Several deaths are reported after the impact of a Russian missile in a restaurant in a city in Ukraine