Five dead and dozens injured in Russian missile attack on Ukrainian Pokrovsk | News on the Russia-Ukraine war

According to official reports, the city, located near the eastern front line, was hit by two Iskander-M missiles fired 30 minutes apart.

At least five people were killed and 41 injured, including four children, after Russia fired two missiles at the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

“This is one of the largest enemy attacks on civilians in recent times,” regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Three girls aged 9, 11 and 13 and a 12-year-old boy were injured, he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening video address that Ukraine would respond to the attack “absolutely fairly.”

Petro, a local, circled a badly damaged blue car, the driver’s seat covered in blood. His son had died at the wheel and his grandson was taken to hospital. “My son is already dead, it’s over,” he said, crying.

Six cars and 16 houses were damaged and one house was destroyed, Filashkin said.

Russian troops fired two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at the city, which is about 24 kilometers from the front line, he added. The attacks were half an hour apart, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said.

‘Boom’

The attack left a huge crater, and surrounding houses lay in ruins, with windows blown out and roofs torn off. The town had a population of about 61,000 before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nikolay Kurilov said he was watering the flowers in his garden when the first rocket hit less than 500 meters away.

“And boom. I almost fell over,” the 70-year-old told the AFP news agency.

“And about 15 minutes later there was another bang. We started calling relatives.”

In recent weeks, Moscow has concentrated its firepower on the eastern Ukrainian industrial region of Donetsk, which the Kremlin says belongs to Russia.

The Pokrovsk area has seen some of the heaviest fighting along the 1,000-kilometer-long front line in recent months. The Russians advanced toward the city after taking Avdiivka in February.

“Today the hottest area is the Pokrovsk direction, where the attacker continues to try to break through our defenses,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Monday, pointing to 45 enemy attacks in the area.

“The defense forces are taking measures to exhaust the Russian occupation forces and prevent their advance deep into Ukraine.”

In addition, Filashkin said a 62-year-old man was killed in a Russian bombing raid on the town of Kurakhove, south of Pokrovsk. He said Russian forces also killed a 63-year-old civilian in the town of Toretsk, where Moscow’s troops have stepped up attacks after a prolonged ceasefire.

Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk in late 2022, along with three other regions of Ukraine that it had partially occupied.

Parts of Donetsk have been controlled by armed groups supported by the Kremlin since 2014.