War in Ukraine: at least six dead in bombings in Sloviansk

The ruins are still smoking. In Sloviansk, a city of 100,000 inhabitants located in eastern Ukraine, rocket launchers caused extensive damage. Several neighborhoods were affected and the city’s markets burned down. There would be at least six dead and fifteen injured, according to local authorities. “It is the most important bombing that the city has ever known. It caused 15 fires, deaths and injuries. But we must hold on, we are united”, said Volodymyr Lyakh, mayor of Sloviansk. 15 km south of Sloviansk, shelling also hit Kramatorsk. Two cities located west of Donbass, hitherto under Ukrainian control. Key areas for the Russians, who seek to control the whole region.

On the Russian side this time, the army claims to have shot down three Ukrainian missiles launched in the direction of Belgorod, a Russian town near the Ukrainian border, north of Kharkiv. Residents say: “The windows shattered, the roof shook. There was like a ball of fire which I didn’t even notice I was so panicked. I took my children and we crawled over the pieces of glass to the street”. The explosions would have killed four people, among whom there would be Ukrainians according to the Russian authorities. After 130 days of war, Volodymyr Zelensky asserts that 2,600 Ukrainian localities are today controlled by the Russians. Mainly in the east of the country, where the offensive of Vladimir Putin’s troops is concentrated.