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At Least 15 Ukrainians Killed In Russian Rocket Attack On Apartment Building [1]
['Rfe Rl']
Date: 2022-07
Ukrainian rescuer workers have recovered 15 bodies after Russian Uragan rockets hit a five-story apartment block, collapsing the building in the eastern Donetsk region, officials said.
More than 20 people may still be trapped in the wreckage, the local branch of the emergency service said on Facebook. Five people were pulled out of the rubble alive, it said, adding that rescuers were in contact with at least three people trapped under the ruins.
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Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk military administration, said on July 10 that the attack took place late on July 9 in Chasiv Yar, a town of about 12,000 inhabitants.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine's president, said the strike was "another terrorist attack," and that Russia should be designated as a "state sponsor of terrorism" as a result.
The rocket assault on Chasiv Yar is the latest in a recent burst of high-casualty Russian attacks on civilian structures in Ukraine.
At least 19 people died when a Russian missile hit a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk in late June. Earlier this month, 21 people were killed when an apartment building and recreational area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region.
Russia -- which says it is conducting a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine -- denies targeting civilians in the war. There was no comment on the strike on Chasiv Yar at a Russian Defense Ministry briefing on July 10.
Multiple rocket attacks were also reported in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, not far from the Russian border.
Rockets, fired in the early hours of July 10, hit a school, a private house, and a children's sanatorium, partially destroying the buildings, the Kharkiv prosecutor's office said. A 62-year-old man was wounded in the attacks, it said in a Telegram post.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces attacked areas near the eastern town of Slovyansk on July 10, but were forced to withdraw.
Serhiy Hayday, the governor of eastern Luhansk region, said Russian troops were gathering in the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 kilometers east of Slovyansk.
"The enemy is...shelling the surrounding settlements, carrying out air strikes, but it is still unable to quickly occupy the entire Luhansk region," Hayday said on Telegram.
"During the last night alone, the Russians launched seven artillery barrages and four rocket strikes," he added.
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Last week, Russian forces captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on July 10 that advanced U.S. long-range multiple-launch rocket systems had already made a "huge difference" on the battlefield.
Ukraine currently has nine of the high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and similar systems provided by the U.S. and allies, Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said earlier this week.
The United States announced on July 8 that it would be sending four more. It said that would bring the number of HIMARS sent by Washington to 12.
Serhiy Khlan, deputy chief of the Kherson regional council in exile, said Ukrainian troops struck a military unit in the southern city of Kherson, setting it on fire.
Serhiy Bratchuk, the head of the Odesa regional administration, said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces "struck the occupiers' base in the Kherson region."
Russian air-defense systems were activated in Kherson on July 10, TASS reported, adding that four explosions were heard and smoke was seen in the central part of the city.
With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and Unian
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