Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine
Reuters
Eleven civilians were killed in a Russian missile attack that struck an apartment building and warehouses in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, local officials said.
Emergency services said four were killed in the apartment block and seven at the warehouses, where officials said a private company stored goods such as fizzy drinks. Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said none of the targets had military links.
A rescuer works at the site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on 13th June, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Andrii Dubchak
A further 25 people were wounded, two of whom suffered severe burns and were in critical condition, the chief doctor of one of Kryvyi Rih’s hospitals told reporters.
Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block, from which smoke billowed after the early-morning attack on the central Ukrainian city.
RUSSIAN-INSTALLED OFFICIAL PUTS TOLL IN TWO FLOODED TOWNS AT 17, ONE WEEK AFTER UKRAINE DAM BREACH
The death toll from flooding in two Russian-controlled towns in southern Ukraine has risen to 17 one week after a massive dam holding back a reservoir was breached, a Russian-installed official said on Tuesday.
Andrei Alekseyenko, chairman of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said 12 people were confirmed dead in Hola Prystan and five in Oleshky, two small towns downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam.
Reuters could not independently verify the figures. Hundreds of people were rescued by boat from the roofs of flooded houses in the wake of the disaster, but volunteers told Russian independent media outlet iStories last week that they estimated the death toll in the hundreds.
Russia controls the south bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, while Ukraine holds Kherson city on the opposite bank, as well as Mykolaiv region further north.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Monday that 10 people had been killed in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions and that 42 were missing. Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of destroying the dam, which is located in Russian-controlled territory.
The Russian-installed government will begin paying compensation to flood victims on Tuesday of up to 10,000 roubles (£120), Alekseyenko said, adding that more than 500 applications have been received.
A villager in Hola Prystan told Reuters on Friday that her house was completely carried away in the torrent.
More than 7,100 people have been evacuated from areas under Russian control, including 421 children, local emergency services said.
Floodwaters have completely receded in Nova Kakhovka just south of the dam and work has begun to sanitize the area, Alekseyenko said Monday evening.
Local authorities have set up vaccination clinics against hepatitis A, typhoid and dysentery for evacuees. Samples show well water is still unsafe to drink in Hola Prystan, he said.
“Specialists have already started pumping out water and drying it with heat guns. The victims continue to receive water and food,” he said.
Another top Russian-installed official, Vladimir Saldo, said more than 21,000 houses remained flooded as of Tuesday.
In volunteer-organized chat groups, family members of villagers still stuck in the flood zone clamoured for fresh information about evacuations on Tuesday. Many were still unable to reach their relatives by phone and did not know where the evacuation buses were headed.
One man, Sergei, told Reuters his 83-year-old father in law spent three days in his attic in Oleshky before the water receded and he could come down.
“Dead bodies of people and animals float in the dirty water,” Sergei said the elderly man related. “A stench is beginning to rise over the town.”
– LUCY PAPACHRISTOU, Reuters
Olha Chernousova, who lives in the five-storey apartment block, said she was woken by an explosion which sounded like thunder and thrown out of her bed by a violent blast wave.
“I ran to my front door, but it was very hot there… the smoke was heavy,” she said.
“What could I do? I was sat on the balcony, terrified I would lose consciousness. Nobody came for a long time…I thought I would have to jump into a tree.”
Around her, the street and courtyard were strewn with glass and bricks. At least five cars were ruined husks.
Ihor Lavrenenko, who lives in a different part of the building, said he heard two blasts.
“I woke up from the first bang, a weak one, and went straightaway onto the balcony. Then the second one erupted overhead, I watched from my balcony as hot debris fell,” he said.
Zelenskiy, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, condemned the attack.
“Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch.”
Russia has repeatedly struck cities across Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February, 2022, but denies targeting civilians. Moscow has also accused Ukraine of cross-border shelling as Kyiv carries out counter-offensive operations.
Ukraine’s military command said air defences had destroyed 10 out of 14 cruise missiles, and one of four Iranian-made drones, fired at Ukraine overnight.
Meanwhile, a Russian-backed official in Ukraine said on Tuesday that a top Russian officer has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s counter-offensive against Russian forces.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which is under Moscow’s control, said Major-General Sergei Goryachev, Chief of Staff of Russia’s 35th Army, had been killed on the Zaporizhzhia front on Monday where Ukrainian forces have been retaking some territory.
There was no immediate confirmation of the news from the Defence Ministry, which was first reported by “Voenkor Z,” a Russian war correspondent and blogger.
Rogov, writing on his official channel on the Telegram messaging application, said:
“The army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military commanders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage. Deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased!”
Goryachev, 52, was a highly-decorated officer.
During his career, he fought in the Second Chechen War, commanded a tank brigade, oversaw a Russian military base in Tajikistan and led Russian forces in Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian region of Transdniestria.
– Additional reporting by LIDIA KELLY, ANNA PRUCHNICKA, ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC and ANDREW OSBORN
