KYIV (Reuters) -At least one person was killed in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, the regional governor said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said the attack caused loud explosions and a fire in a residential building.
“The Russians hit the central part of the city…At least one dead civilian is currently known about,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Rescue workers were on the scene. A photograph posted online by Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko and the city council showed flames pouring out of a residential building.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, did not immediately comment on the situation in Kramatorsk. It has denied deliberately targeting civilians.
After failing to capture the capital Kyiv at the outset of the invasion, Russia has shifted to a campaign of devastating bombardments to cement and extend its control of Ukraine’s south and east.
Ukrainian officials have said they expect Kramatorsk, a city of more than 150,000 people before the Russian invasion, to become one of the main focuses of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine says Russian forces have intensified long-distance strikes on targets far from the front, killing large numbers of civilians. Moscow says it is hitting military targets.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
