Photo: The Canadian Press
Ukrainian soldiers drive a tank along a road in Stupochki, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, July 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Dozens of Ukrainian emergency workers worked Sunday to pull people out of the rubble after a Russian missile attack smashed residential buildings in eastern Ukraine. The strike killed at least 15 people and dozens were believed to still be trapped a day later.
The late-night strike on Saturday destroyed three buildings in a residential area of the town of Chasov Yar, mostly inhabited by people working in nearby factories. Ukraine’s emergency services said on Sunday that they had so far rescued five people from the rubble and contacted three others who were still trapped alive under the rubble. Another man was pulled alive from the rubble on Sunday night.
Cranes and excavators worked alongside rescue teams to clear the rubble of a building whose sides were completely severed by the impact. Rescuers continued to work in the rain despite the dangerous conditions. The pounding of artillery on the nearby front line echoed just a few miles away, causing some workers to flinch and others to run for cover when it got too close.
Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of Donetsk Oblast, which includes Chasov Yar, said the city of about 12,000 people was hit by Uragan missiles, which were fired from truck-borne systems. Chasov Yar is 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is a prime target for Russian forces as they push west.
Residents told The Associated Press that they heard at least three explosions and that in addition to the dead, many people were seriously injured in the blasts. A group of neighbors sat in the yard quietly discussing who was injured and who was still missing.
“There was an explosion, all the windows blew out and I was thrown to the ground. I called my kids to tell them I was alive. My kitchen walls and my balcony are completely gone,” said one resident, Oksana, 45, who did not want to give her last name.
She struggled to hold back her tears as she spoke. She was in her apartment on the third floor when the rockets hit.
“We didn’t hear any sound, we just felt the impact. I ran to hide in the hallway with my dogs. Everyone I know started calling me to find out what happened. I was shaking like a leaf,” says 59-year-old pensioner Irina Shulimova.
Front doors and balconies were shattered by the blast, piles of twisted metal and bricks lay on the ground, and crushed summer cherries lay among the shattered window panes.
A 30-year-old technology worker named Alexander said his mother was among those injured in the explosion.
“Thank God I wasn’t injured, it was a miracle,” he said, touching the crucifix around his neck.
Although the home he shares with his mother is now destroyed, he says he has no plans to leave the neighborhood.
“I have enough money to last just one more month. Many people are already fed up with refugees from the east – there is no one there to feed us and support us. It’s better to stay,” said Alexander, who declined to give his last name.
Dima, another resident, has lived for more than 20 years on the ground floor of one of the buildings hollowed out in the attack. He paced back and forth through the rubble.
“As you can see, my home is lost,” he said.
Twenty-one people were killed earlier this month when a residential building and recreation area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region. In addition, at least 19 people were killed when a Russian missile hit a shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk in late June.
Russia has repeatedly said it only hits targets of military value in the war. There was no comment on Chasov Yar at a Russian Defense Ministry briefing on Sunday.
Donetsk Oblast is one of two provinces, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbass region, where separatist rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Last week, Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.
Russian forces are raising “real hell” in the Donbass, despite estimates that they have taken an operational pause, Luhansk Governor Sergey Haidai said on Saturday.
After the capture of Lisichansk, some analysts predicted that Moscow’s troops would likely take some time to rearm and regroup.
But “so far there is no operational pause announced by the adversary. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,” Haidai said. He later said Ukrainian forces had destroyed some ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.
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