Eleven people including five children were killed in Russian S-300 missile strikes on Saturday in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to the local military administration.
“Eleven dead, including five children – these are the preliminary results of the strikes on Pokrovsk district. Russians hit the area with S-300 missiles, killing 11 people and wounding 8 others. The main hit was on Pokrovsk and Rivne of the Myrnohrad community,” Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk region military administration said in a post on Telegram.
“The enemy cynically hits civilians, trying to bring as much grief to our land as possible,” he said.
Photos posted by the official showed rescue workers searching through the rubble of single story houses and at least one blown out car.
Donetsk is on the frontline of the fighting in the east, and is partially-occupied by Russian forces.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) said search and rescue efforts at the scene of the strikes, which completely destroyed three private houses, is ongoing.
“As a result of rescue operations, 1 man was rescued from the rubble,” SES said. “Rescuers also extinguished a fire in a residential building on the area of 100 square meters. A total of 38 personnel and 10 pieces of equipment were engaged in the work,” the SES statement said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in the strike in his nightly address.
“Russia must feel – and always feel – that none of these strikes will be without consequences for the terrorist state. We have to ensure this – with our strength, our own defense and political capabilities,” Zelensky said.