The State Emergency Service announced that so far the bodies of 15 people have been found in the rubble and that search and rescue operations are continuing. As of 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), emergency workers had rescued five people and made contact with three others who were still buried under the rubble, the agency said in a statement.
The emergency service added that 24 people, including a child, “may still be under the rubble”. Pavlo Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk regional military command, told Ukrainian television that the area had been hit by two or three Russian missiles and that the incident was “another confirmation of the crimes of the Russian Federation, confirmation that they are shelling populated areas. “ Chasiv Yar and other towns in Donetsk have come under heavy fire in recent days as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian resistance in the region and move further west. Donetsk and Luhansk are the two regions that together form Donbass, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014. The region has become a key element of Russian military ambition President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. troops failed to capture Kyiv earlier this year. Russian troops have already captured almost the entire Luhansk region, the head of the Luhansk region’s military command, Serhi Heidei, said in a cabled statement on Saturday, adding that some 300,000 people from the region had been forced to flee their homes. Lysychansk, the last town still under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, fell to Russia last week. Russian troops have since concentrated on the Donetsk region, shelling extensive areas along the front line and pushing from the Luhansk region into the Donetsk region, according to Hayday. Ukrainians have been defending this area from Russian attacks for more than a month. “We are trying to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire front line,” Headey said, adding that “occupation forces have achieved minor successes and are continuing their offensive west of Lysihansk.” CNN’s Manveena Suri, Yulia Kesaieva and Josh Pennington contributed to the report.