Rescue teams search for victims amid the rubble of the destroyed building in Lysychansk, Pluhansk, eastern Ukraine (Reuters)
The pro-Russian authorities in Lugansk Province, eastern Ukraine, reported that 20 people were killed in a missile attack launched by Ukrainian forces on a bakery in one of the cities of the region, while a fire broke out in an oil refinery in Russian Volgograd following a drone attack claimed by Kiev.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry said that its workers recovered 20 bodies from under the rubble yesterday, Saturday, following a Ukrainian attack on a building housing a bakery in the city of Lysychansk, which is the third largest city in Luhansk Province in eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by Russia.
The Ministry published a video clip of part of the operations of emergency workers recovering bodies and injured people from under the rubble of the destroyed building.
Meanwhile, the German news agency quoted the commander of the pro-Russian separatist forces in Lugansk, Leonid Pasichnik, as saying, “Ukrainian forces bombed a bakery in Lysychansk, and there are civilian casualties under the rubble.”
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Western weapons were used in the attack, and confirmed that dozens of civilians were in the building when it was bombed.
The media center in Lugansk stated that Ukraine bombed the bakery using the advanced American HIMARs fast-moving missile launcher system.
Russian forces have controlled the city of Lysychansk, which is located about 10 kilometers from the front line, and has a population of about 100,000 people, since the summer of 2022.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front line near Luhansk (Anatolia)
Mutual bombing
Also in field developments in the Russian-Ukrainian war, a fire broke out yesterday, Saturday, in a large oil refinery in the Volgograd region in southwestern Russia, following a drone attack claimed by Ukraine, according to a local official.
The governor of the region, Andrey Bocharov, reported that air defenses and electronic jamming systems repelled a drone attack in Volgograd, specifically in the Kalachevsky and Zakanalje regions.
He said that a fire broke out in the Volgograd refinery after a drone was shot down, noting that the fire did not cause casualties, and that firefighters were able to contain it.
For its part, the Russian army said - in a statement - that its air defense systems shot down 4 drones in the Belgorod region, and confronted two in Volgograd and another in Rostov-on-Don.
For its part, Kiev said that the Russian army targeted Ukrainian sites with 14 drones and two missiles, and explained that the attacks targeted energy supply sites in the Dnipropetrovsk industrial region.
The Ukrainian army said that 9 of the above-mentioned marches were intercepted, while an official official in the region reported that two fires broke out as a result of those attacks, which cut off electricity services for about 15,000 residents of the region, and also caused the cancellation of some tram lines in the city.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies