At least 15 people have been killed and more than 20 are feared buried under rubble after Russian rockets struck an apartment block in Chasiv Yar, a town in eastern Ukraine, officials say.

Some victims have been brought out alive. The death toll was given by a Ukrainian emergency services official.

One side of the five-storey building was ripped apart, leaving a mountain of rubble. Chasiv Yar is near the city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region.

Donetsk is the focus of a Russian push.

The region's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the destruction was caused by Russian Uragan rockets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes on the residential block were carried out deliberately.

"After such strikes, they will not be able to say they did not know something or did not understand something," he said in a video address, adding that "punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer".

Rescuers used a crane and picked through the rubble by hand on Sunday, looking for more than 20 people still said to be trapped, including a child.

Video released by Ukraine's emergencies ministry showed rescue workers pulling a man out from underneath the collapsed building.

Some residents who survived the strike returned to the site on Sunday looking for their belongings.

"We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen," one survivor called Lyudmila told Reuters news agency.

"The second, I do not even remember, there was a flash, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning."

Another woman, Venera, told Reuters that her apartment had been destroyed in the chaos and that she had been unable to find her kittens under the rubble.

Dozens of emergency workers are still searching for bodies beneath the piles of concrete and rubble in Chasiv Yar, assisted by a bulldozer and crane to lift slabs of concrete.

The entire side of one apartment block was destroyed. A neighbouring block was also badly damaged, with shattered glass, wood and concrete littering the floor. The emergency services were still looking for survivors under the rubble. They would occasionally halt their work to listen for any sounds.

While we were there, only an injured dog was pulled out from under the rubble. Bodies of the dead had already been recovered by the time we arrived. Some eyewitnesses said that some of the bodies had been wearing military uniforms. But most of those living here were civilians.

Survivors were collecting belongings from their damaged homes and handing out food to neighbours. They spoke of seeing and hearing flashes of massive explosions late last night. But in daylight there was no evidence that this was a military position.

Once again it appears that Russian artillery has destroyed people's homes and killed civilians. A familiar pattern shown throughout this war - with no sign of Russian remorse.

On Sunday, Veronika Bakhal of Donetsk emergency services told the BBC that they still hoped to find more survivors.

"Language contact with three persons under the rubble has been established and is being maintained.

"That is, we know for sure that there are people alive. Measures are now being taken to save them."

She also said another five-storey apartment block had been hit nearby - in that case the roof had been partly destroyed and firefighters had extinguished a blaze there. No bodies were recovered at that site, she said.

Ukrainian forces have been reinforcing defences around Kramatorsk and Slovyansk - two cities in Donetsk in the path of Russia's offensive.

On Saturday the Russian defence ministry reported that its forces had destroyed a hangar storing US M777 howitzers in Chasiv Yar. That claim has not been confirmed.

Having captured the Luhansk region, the Russians aim to take the rest of Donetsk. Both regions comprise the industrial Donbas, which President Vladimir Putin claims to be part of Russia.

The Chasiv Yar civilian death toll is one of the highest in Donetsk so far, Ms Bakhal said, though Russian shelling of Mariupol caused more destruction and casualties.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by BBC NEWS

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