This is one of the heaviest tolls caused by a strike in the Donbass since the bombardment of the Kramatorsk station (Ukraine) on April 8. A Russian strike on Saturday July 9 targeted a residential area of Chassiv Iar, about twenty kilometers from Kramatorsk, killing at least 47 people, according to a latest report from the Ukrainian state emergency service on Facebook, Wednesday 13 July.
Chassiv Iar, a town of nearly 13,000 inhabitants, is located in the Donetsk region, a priority for Russian forces in eastern Ukraine after their claimed capture of the entire neighboring region of Luhansk. According to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, at least 591 civilians have been killed and 1,548 others injured in this territory since the start of the Russian invasion. Franceinfo looks back on what we know about this new deadly strike by Russian forces.
A gutted apartment complex
“Yesterday at 9:17 p.m., two five-storey residential buildings were destroyed as a result of shelling in the city of Chassiv Iar”, the Ukrainian state emergency service said Sunday morning. Released images show the extent of the rubble at the complex.
Residents interviewed by the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters heard at least three explosions. “I was in the bedroom, I came out and everything started to shake, to collapse. What saved me was the wave of the explosion that propelled me, bleeding , in the toilets”testified a resident interviewed by AFP. “There was an explosion, all the windows were smashed and I was thrown to the ground”continues Oksana with the AP* agency. “My kitchen walls and my balcony have completely disappeared.”
“This is my grandmother’s bed”, also told the ruins of another resident, Oleksandr, to the New York Times*. The apartment complex affected was social housing “for vulnerable people”, said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs* at the UN. According to the AP agency, most of the inhabitants of this residential area are workers employed in nearby factories. Several locals assured the media, including the New York Times*, that soldiers also resided in these buildings.
Sunday, dAFP journalists who arrived on the spot saw a partially collapsed building, rescuers and a backhoe working to clear the area. Part of this residence was destroyed by the strike. Pavlo Kyrylenko assured that this building had been hit by a Russian Hurricane missile.
A record that has continued to grow
More than fifty rescuers were mobilized on Sunday to try to rescue residents in the ruins of the residential complex, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. An initial report initially reported at least six dead and five wounded, but “there could be 34 more people under the rubble, including a 9-year-old child”, warned the emergency service on Facebook. The death toll then rose to fifteen. There are “15 names in the list of dead and, unfortunately, this is not the final number”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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While 56 rescuers were still mobilized on Monday, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the toll of the Russian strike rose to 31 dead. By Tuesday morning, rescuers had managed to clear around 70% of the rubble, according to the governor of the Donetsk region. That same day, the toll of the bombardment reached 35, then 41 dead. Rescuers interviewed by the British daily The Guardian* no longer had much hope of finding survivors.
On Facebook (in Ukrainian), the emergency services reported more than 400 tons of rubble. The latest reports delivered by the rescuers, Wednesday, July 13, reported at least 45, then 47 dead.
kyiv speaks of “terrorist attack”, Moscow claims to have killed fighters
After the strike, Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of deliberately targeting civilians and spoke “unavoidable sanctions for any Russian murderer”, note The Guardian*. “Whoever orders such strikes, whoever carries them out in ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills in an absolutely conscious way”he said during an address to the nation on Sunday evening. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian head of state, spoke “another terrorist attack” and advocated designating Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
On the side of Moscow, which regularly denies targeting civilians in Ukraine, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that “more than 300” Ukrainian fighters had been killed in a strike on Chassiv Iar. He did not mention the affected residential complex, speaking of “high precision missile” having destroyed a “deployment point” of the Ukrainian army.
*These links refer to pages in English.