According to the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office, the strike also hit “residential buildings, commercial premises, cars, a post office and other buildings, including windows, glass and doors that were blown out”.
A new attack against the city of Kramatorsk, the only major city in eastern Ukraine still controlled by kyiv. A Russian strike hit a restaurant on the evening of Tuesday, June 27, leaving at least eight dead and around sixty wounded, according to a report from the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office on Wednesday morning.
>> War in Ukraine: follow the latest information in our live
The office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostine, also announced the opening of an investigation for violation of the laws and customs of war.
A busy restaurant targeted
According to Ukrainian police, Russia fired two rockets at the city. The bombardment destroyed the Ria Pizza restaurant, a popular establishment in the center of Kramatorsk and regularly frequented by journalists and the military.
The strike also hit “apartment buildings, commercial premises, cars, a post office and other buildings, whose windows, panes and doors were blown out”, clarified the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
An AFP journalist present at the scene of the strike saw ambulances, police, soldiers and the mayor of the city near the destroyed restaurant, in front of which a crowd of residents gathered. According to a chef, “there were a lot of people” in the restaurant at the time of the strike.
At least eight dead
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, the strike “was carried out in the evening, when people had just returned home from work”. The strike killed eight people, including “three 17-year-old underage girls and two 14-year-old sisters”according to the same source.
The emergency services evoke for their part 9 dead including three children and 56 injured (including a child born in 2022). “Rescue operations are underway. There may still be people under the rubble.” warns the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday morning.
Colombians among the wounded
Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who was in the restaurant, was “skull injury” and is found “in critical condition” according to a statement from Colombian writer Hector Abad and Colombian politician Sergio Jaramillo, who were dining with her. The latter were slightly injured, as was journalist Catalina Gomez, correspondent in Ukraine for the daily El Tiempo, also present. Hector Abad and Sergio Jaramillo were staying in eastern Ukraine to“to express the solidarity of Latin America against barbarism and the illegal invasion carried out by Russia”.