Russia pounds Ukraine as Putin holds talks in Tehran
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting homes, a school and a community center as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Iran to discuss a U.N.-backed proposal to unblock exports of Ukrainian grain.
In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province that is considered a likely occupation target of Russian forces, one person was killed in an airstrike that hit a five-story residential building, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Ukraine’s Emergency Service said on Telegram that 10 people were wounded, five of them hospitalized, but it didn’t mention any deaths.
Fresh blood stained the concrete nearby as apartments on at least two floors burned. In the aftermath of the attack, shrapnel was placed in a small pile near an empty playground.
“There was no one here. Everything is ruined,” said Halyna Maydannyk, the resident of one burned apartment. “Who knows why they’re doing this? We were all living peacefully.”
Kramatorsk residents Mykola Zavodovskyi and Tetiana Zavodovska stood in bandages outside a local hospital. They said they heard a loud clap and went to their balcony to investigate. Then everything exploded and the windows shattered.
“Probably it was a rocket, and probably it was brought down by Ukrainian forces,” they said.
The strike shortly after noon came after Kyrylenko had earlier reported four other Russian strikes in Kramatorsk and urged civilians to evacuate.
Russian forces also fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles overnight at the Odesa region in southern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said strikes on the village of Bilenke had a legitimate military goal and "destroyed depots of ammunition for weapons supplied by the United States and European countries.”
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