Strike on residential building leaves 2 dead in Ukraine’s Kramatorsk

A rescuer asks for silence to confirm survivors as they remove debris from a destroyed apartment building hit by a rocket during the night in downtown Kramatorsk, Ukraine on February 1, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AFP) — At least two people were killed Wednesday and eight wounded when a Russian rocket struck a residential building in the center of the eastern city of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian officials said.

AFP saw two bodies at the scene as rescue workers cleared the rubble.

“Two hours ago, the Russian occupiers hit a residential building in the center of the city with a rocket and completely destroyed it,” regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

He said at least two people were dead, warning that more victims might be found by rescuers, law enforcement officers and others at the scene.

The Office of the General Prosecutor said that eight people had been wounded.

“The exact number of victims is being clarified,” it said in a statement.

“Peaceful people died and are under the rubble,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote after the rocket strike.

“This is the daily reality of life in our country. A country bordering on absolute evil.”

Kramatorsk is in Donetsk, where Kremlin-backed separatists have controlled parts of the eastern industrial region, including its largest city, since 2014.

Moscow now seeks to capture the entire region after declaring it part of Russia last year.

© Agence France-Presse