Ten killed, 35 hurt in Russian strike on supermarket in Ukraine’s east
2024.08.09 07:48
(Reuters) -A Russian missile strike hit a supermarket in the Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka in the front-line Donetsk region on Friday, killing at least ten people and injuring 35 others, Ukrainian officials said.
The strike caused a fire that had been put out, the interior minister said. Heavy black smoke clouds rising from the destroyed building could be seen in the images and videos posted by officials.
“Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.
Emergency services continued working out the rubble looking for survivors, he added.
Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin initially said Russia used artillery but later said the attack with from an X-38 air-to-surface missile.
Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal company, said its cargo office in the supermarket was damaged in the strike.
“All our employees are alive. One colleague received a concussion – he is getting all the necessary help,” the company said on X.
Residential houses, shops and more than dozen cars were as well damaged in the attack, according to the interior minister’s post on Telegram.
Kostiantynivka lies just about 13 kilometers from the active combat line in Ukraine’s east. Kyiv-held parts of the Donetsk region regularly come under Russian shelling and air strikes.
The region is one of the hottest areas of fighting as Russia targets areas in the direction of the strategic eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Elsewhere, Russia has accused Ukraine this week of launching a cross-border assault in Russia’s Kursk region. The Kyiv military has not commented on that operation yet.
