Efe Moscow

Moscow

Updated Sunday, February 4, 2024-13:57

  • Live War Ukraine - Russia, last minute

Russia

accuses the Ukrainian army of

killing 28 civilians

in an attack

against a bakery

in the annexed eastern region of

Lugansk

and blamed the West for supplying Kiev with the weapons to carry out these "terrorist attacks" against Russian territory.

"This is further proof of the criminal character of the Kiev regime (...) and, as Russian President

Vladimir Putin

highlighted , that the Ukrainian Army has finally become a terrorist organization," said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, in a statement.

In mid-January, a similar attack left around thirty civilians dead and around twenty injured in a market in the capital of the eastern region of

Donetsk

. A bakery full of people.

The attack, allegedly carried out by Kiev with Western weapons, caused the

collapse on Saturday of a two-story building

that housed a bakery in the city of

Lisichansk

, which had about 100,000 inhabitants before the start of the war.

At the time of the projectile's impact

on the bakery, there were dozens of people, including workers and customers

, who were queuing at lunchtime - around 3:30 p.m. local time - to receive the bread.

According to authorities loyal to the Kremlin in Lugansk, the attack on the building, which also housed the

Adriatic restaurant

, was carried out with an

American-made HIMARS missile

.

"Emergency personnel saved ten people. Unfortunately, 28 people, including a child, have died," reported the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. Among the dead are

18 men, 9 women and a child

, to which we must add three seriously injured people who are in intensive care.

The rescue efforts among the rubble of the building took place throughout the night and will continue throughout the day on Sunday, so it is not ruled out that the number of deaths will increase in the coming hours.

The leader of the Lugansk People's Republic,

Leonid Pasechnik

, who declared Sunday a day of mourning in the region, initially said that dozens of people could have been buried in the building.

Moscow demands Western condemnation.

In this regard, Zajárova demanded from international organizations an "unconditional condemnation" of the attack against a civilian target, which she called a "terrorist action by Ukrainian neo-Nazis."

"Citizens of the European Union (EU) must know how their taxes are used. They buy deadly weapons systems with them and supply them to the Kiev regime, which with their help murders innocent civilians," she said. Zakharova added that the bombing of Kiev represents Ukrainian "gratitude" for the "generous" assistance of 50 billion euros approved this week by the EU.

In turn, he called on Parisians and Romans to imagine that, "instead of fresh buns, they bring home relatives killed or injured by Ukrainian terrorists."

For months

Moscow has accused Kiev of committing terrorist acts against the occupied territories

, which includes the Crimean peninsula, and its rear, while insisting that its aviation, artillery and drones do not target civilian targets in Ukraine.

At the end of January, Putin also accused Kiev of shooting down a Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian military personnel for exchange with a US-made Patriot missile.

Bad news for kyiv from Washington

Meanwhile, after the good news that Brussels unblocked aid for kyiv, the White House has not yet been able to reach an agreement in the US House of Representatives.

House Speaker

Mike Johnson

, a Republican , announced Saturday that his party will introduce a standalone $17.6 billion aid bill to Israel next week.

The White House, which

had requested more than $60 billion

in assistance to Ukraine, described this legislation as a "cynical political maneuver."

His spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, assured that this "stratagem (...) does nothing to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves from Putin's aggression."