(Moscow) The death toll from Saturday’s strike attributed to the Ukrainian army on a bakery in the occupied city of Lysychansk, in the east of the country, rose to 28 dead, including a child, Russian emergency services announced on Sunday.
Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region, fell to Russian forces in the summer of 2022 after a violent battle.
The front in eastern Ukraine has barely moved in months, but fighting continues and shelling has intensified on both sides this winter.
Russian emergency services indicated on Sunday morning that search operations were continuing in Lyssychansk, after having lasted all night, to find victims under the ruins of the bakery.
“Approximately 65% of the destroyed structure has been dismantled […] Unfortunately, 28 people, including a child, died,” the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram.
The day before, the same source had published a video of rescuers working in the dark, extracting a body from the rubble before discovering an injured woman who was evacuated on a stretcher.
Rescuers have so far rescued 10 people from the rubble, according to the ministry.
Local health authorities, cited by the Russian news agency TASS, said four survivors were in “very serious condition” and that 18 men, nine women and one child had been killed.
Day of mourning
Ukraine has so far not reacted to these accusations.
The Ukrainian general staff only affirmed on Sunday that the Ukrainian air force had, during the previous day, struck “12 areas of enemy concentration”. Ukrainian missiles also targeted “an artillery piece” and another “force concentration zone,” this source added, without further details.
Lysychansk, located 15 km from Ukrainian-controlled territory, had a population of 111,000 people before the Russian offensive began.
Russian forces took control of it in the summer of 2022, as did its twin city of Sievierodonetsk, after one of the most brutal battles since the start of the offensive in February 2022.
On Telegram, Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed governor of Luhansk, announced a day of mourning in this occupied territory on Sunday.
The day before, he accused Kyiv forces of targeting a busy bakery that he said is known for having fresh bread on weekends.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti published a video of a destroyed building, where we also see rescuers pulling a completely crushed car out of the rubble.
The one-story building bore a large sign with the name “Restaurant Adriatic” and appeared completely destroyed, reduced to rubble.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Western weapons were used in the bombing and said it hoped for “swift and unconditional condemnation” of the attack from international organizations.
Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian General Staff said that 66 armed clashes took place along the front and that Russia carried out two missile attacks, 65 air attacks and 53 multiple rocket launcher attacks.
For his part, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine and hit almost daily by shooting, affirmed that Kyiv had launched at least two kamikaze drone attacks on Saturday and carried out shooting on several villages, without of victims.
The day before, Kyiv claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a major refinery in the Russian city of Volgograd (South-West), triggering a fire which was quickly brought under control according to local authorities.