Russian rocket strikes injured 22 and claimed the lives of at least four people in Ukraine on Tuesday, said the country’s interior minister.
The rocket strikes hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk, located in eastern Ukraine.
“Two people died and 22 were injured, including a child. A restaurant and several houses were damaged”, Igor Klymenko said on Telegram, adding that more victims may still be under the rubble.
“There were a lot of people in there — there are children under the rubble,” said Yevgen, who had been dining with two friends at the Ria Pizza restaurant.
“We were just about to leave,” he said, but one of his friends was not “under the rubble”, he told AFP after the explosion.
As per AFP reports, a crowd quickly gathered at the site of the strike where the fires continued to burn as soldiers and rescue workers searched for other victims.
According to Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, two Russian rockets hit the city of 150,000 people, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the country’s besieged east.
“There was a good crowd” at the restaurant when the missile hit, one of its cooks, 32-year-old Ruslan, told AFP.
“I had just arrived: I was standing there, and then I was buried,” he said. “I was lucky.”
Natalia, in tears, explained that her half-brother Nikita, 23, was inside near the pizza oven.
“They can’t get him out, he was covered” by debris, she said.
The strike also caused destruction and damaged several nearby buildings which have often been targeted by Russian forces since the invasion launched by Russia in February 2022.
“People told me they heard a plane flying, there was a hissing and then an explosion,” a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier who gave his war name as “Ghost”, and was nearby when the strike occurred, told AFP.
He quickly entered the restaurant to help rescue workers. “A girl was trapped, injured. They haven’t yet been able to get her out,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
