The residential block in the town of Chasov Yar was hit on Saturday night as Russia re-intensified its attack on towns in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take control of the entire Donbas region.
The State Emergency Service reported that the bodies of 15 people have been found under the rubble so far and that search and rescue operations are continuing.
As of 1:00 p.m. local time (6:00 a.m. ET), emergency workers had rescued five people and made contact with three others who were still buried under the rubble, the agency said in a statement.
Emergency services added that 24 people, including a child, “may still be under the rubble”.
Pavlo Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, told Ukrainian television that the area had been hit by two or three Russian missiles and that the incident was “another confirmation of the crimes of the Russian Federation, confirmation that they are shelling residential areas.” “
Chasov Yar and other towns in Donetsk have come under heavy shelling in recent days as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian resistance in the area and push further west.
Donetsk and Luhansk are the two regions that together form Donbass, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014. The region has become a key focus of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military ambitions in Ukraine after his troops failed to capture Kyiv earlier this year.
Russian troops have now captured almost the entire Luhansk region, the head of the Luhansk region’s military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said in a cable on Saturday, adding that some 300,000 people from the area had been forced to flee their homes.
Lisichansk, the last town still under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, fell to Russia last week.
Since then, Russian troops have focused on the Donetsk region, shelling wide areas along the front line and pushing from the Luhansk region into the Donetsk region, according to Heyday.
The Ukrainians have been defending this area from Russian attacks for over a month.
“We are trying to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire front line,” Heyday said, adding that “occupation forces have achieved minor successes and are continuing their advance west of Lisichansk.”
CNN’s Manvina Suri, Yulia Kesaeva and Josh Pennington contributed reporting.
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