Kramatorsk, Ukraine
CNN
—
A new barrage of missiles Kramatorsk city On Thursday, screaming civilians scrambled to find shelter as flames and thick plumes erupted into the air in eastern Ukraine.
CNN’s team arrived on the scene and heard the first strikes coming into Kramatorsk. CNN confirmed his second attack about a minute apart. Two women jumped out of the car and ran screaming. Other civilians were evacuated as much as possible. The shrapnel he bounced off the explosion-proof glass of one of his vehicles at CNN.
Paramedics rushed to the scene and treated at least one injured civilian. The mayor of Kramatorsk, Oleksandr Honcharenko, also acknowledged that there had been a strike in the city and urged residents to stay in the shelters.
At least five people were injured in Thursday’s attacks, according to Donetsk Regional Military Administrator Pablo Kirilenko.
“Thirteen two-story buildings, three four-story buildings, children’s clinics and schools, garages and cars were damaged,” Kirilenko said. “Russians confirm their status as terrorists every day,” he said.
CNN’s Frederik Plaitgen said: “It was a very big explosion. Clearly a lot of people ran away.” connect the worldadded that both attacks on Thursday “hit the center of a civilian city.”
Ukrainian officials believe Russian forces used S-300 missiles to shell Kramatorsk. Plaitgen added that such weapons are “very inaccurate” when aiming at ground targets.
“When it is done to attack densely populated urban areas, it becomes even more dangerous.”
The new attack in Moscow comes after at least three civilians were killed and eight more wounded when Russian forces targeted residential areas with Iskander-K missiles on Wednesday, according to local police. Two of the injured are in critical condition, Honcharenko said.
Rescue workers searched through piles of rubble in the aftermath of Wednesday’s attack, which damaged eight apartment buildings, trying to find survivors. Authorities also evacuated people to local schools as shelters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike and offered his condolences to the families and friends of the victims.
“This is not history repeating itself. This is the everyday reality of our country,” he told Telegram.
“A country bordering absolute evil, and a country that must overcome it in order to reduce the chances of such a tragedy happening again to zero. does not deserve mercy.”
Moscow’s attack on Kramatorsk came after a senior Kyiv official said Russia was gearing up for a “maximum escalation” of the nearly year-long war in Ukraine.
“These will be the decisive months of the war,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
“We are aware that the major matches are yet to come and will happen within the next two to three months this year.
“Russia is preparing for the maximum escalation. We are drilling and training, we are gathering everything we can. I can’t say I ruled it out.”
