(Kramatorsk) A rocket strike on Tuesday hit a restaurant in the center of Kramatorsk, a large city in eastern Ukraine, with possible casualties among many diners, said the regional governor.
“Two rockets were fired at the city of Kramatorsk”, at a restaurant in the center, “where there was a large concentration of civilians”, Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern region of Donetsk, told television.
“We will now work on the spot and establish the number of injuries and possible victims,” he added.
An AFP reporter at the scene of the strike saw ambulances, police, soldiers and the city’s mayor near this restaurant, Ria Pizza, in front of which a crowd of residents gathered.
A chef in a dust-covered uniform, Rouslan, 32, said there were “a lot of people” in the restaurant at the time of the strike, pointing to the sky: “I had luck “.
Natalia, a woman standing outside, said her half-brother, 23-year-old Nikita, was inside in the pizza-making area. “They can’t get it out [des débris], it was covered. Tiles fell on him, ”she added, in tears.
Kramatorsk, a city of 150,000 inhabitants before the war, is the last major city under Ukrainian control in the East. It is located about thirty kilometers from the front.
New US aid of 500 million
The US Department of Defense on Tuesday announced a further $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including munitions for air defenses and armored vehicles, according to a statement.
The new delivery should notably include around fifty Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, ammunition for Patriot air defense systems and Himars artillery systems, as well as mine clearance equipment, details the Pentagon.
The announcement comes as Kyiv is currently waging its counter-offensive against the Russian forces occupying its territory, on which they have erected numerous lines of defense, and while Moscow is reeling from the aborted rebellion this weekend of the boss of the group paramilitary Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine.
Denouncing Russian army shelling of its troops, Wagner’s fighters marched on Rostov, where they took control of an army headquarters, then continued on their way to Moscow, before turning back on Saturday, sowing confusion and doubt as to the credibility of the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, claimed earlier on Tuesday that he “did not have to withdraw combat units from the ‘special military operation’ area,” Moscow’s term for its war in Ukraine. to redeploy them to Russia during the mutiny.
The tranche of US military aid announced on Tuesday aims to “support Ukraine’s counter-offensive operations, strengthen its air defenses to help Ukraine protect its people […] and other equipment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s war of aggression,” the department said in its statement.
Ukraine has been leading a counter-offensive since the beginning of June aimed at reconquering the territories occupied by Moscow in the east and south, claiming at this stage the resumption of around ten localities.