CHASIV YAR/KYIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia opened fire with artillery, multiple rocket launchers and tanks around Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv and bombed towns in the east, where an earlier attack killed 15 people in an apartment building, the general staff of Ukraine said on Monday. An apartment building in Kharkiv was hit by a rocket overnight, but no casualties were reported, authorities said. A rocket attack on a five-story apartment building in the eastern city of Chasiv Yar on Saturday night killed 15 people and left a dozen people feared trapped in the rubble. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the strike was “another terrorist attack” and that Russia should be labeled a state sponsor of terrorism. Moscow denies targeting civilians, but Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been left in ruins after Russian bombing, with underground and bomb shelters the only safe place for those who remain. On Sunday, rescuers in Chasiv Yar used a crane to lift a concrete slab and their hands to dig through the rubble, while dazed residents who survived the attack retrieved personal belongings and told stories of their escape. A woman was seen walking out of the damaged building carrying an ironing board under her arm, an umbrella and a plastic shopping bag. Others simply watched the rescue efforts, fearing the worst as the dead were carried away. “We ran into the basement, there were three knocks, the first somewhere in the kitchen,” said a resident who gave her name as Ludmila. “The second one, I don’t even remember, there was lightning, we ran to the second entrance and then straight to the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.” Another survivor, who gave her name as Venus, said she wanted to save her two kittens. “They threw me in the bathroom, it was a mess, I was in shock, covered in blood,” she said, crying. “By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full of rubble, three stories down. I never found the kittens under the rubble.” The story continues Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, calling the conflict a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say Putin’s war is an imperial land grab and have accused his forces of war crimes. Moscow denies that it attacked civilians. Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II has killed thousands, left cities and towns in ruins and seen more than 5.5 million Ukrainians flee their country. Ukraine’s general staff said on Monday that Russian forces have launched a wave of shelling in the east as they seek to take control of the industrial heartland of Donbas. He said the widespread shelling was preparations for the intensification of hostilities. The Kremlin has declared victory in the Luhansk province of Donbas, and its troops are now focused on seizing control of neighboring Donetsk. Putin has promised to hand over control of the Donbass to pro-Russian separatists who have declared independence from Kyiv. Russia abandoned an early advance on the capital Kyiv in the face of stiff resistance bolstered by Western weapons. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Sunday warned civilians in the Russian-held Kherson region to leave urgently as Ukraine’s armed forces prepare a counteroffensive there, without giving a timetable for action. “I know for sure that there should not be women and children there and that they should not become human shields,” he said on national television. Reuters could not independently verify reports on the battlefield. (Reporting by Reuters offices Writing by Michael Perry Editing by Stephen Coates)
