Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said more than 20 people may be trapped in the rubble of the five-story building in the town of Chasiv Yar. Saturday night’s rocket attack marks the latest in a recent spate of high-casualty attacks on civilian structures. Zelenskyy fires ambassadors – live updates here Images from the scene show rescue services searching through rubble using tractors and other machinery. Mr Kyrylenko said the town of about 12,000 people was hit by Uragan rockets, which are mounted and fired from trucks. The town of Chasiv Yar is about 20 km southeast of Kramatorsk, a town expected to be a major target for Russian forces as they grind westward. Russia has repeatedly claimed that it only hits targets of military value in the war. Attacks on civilian areas Image: The aftermath of the Chasiv Yar attack In late June, at least 19 people were killed when a Russian missile hit a shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk, and 21 people were killed when an apartment building and a recreation area were hit by missiles in the southern Odesa region this month. Donetsk region is one of two provinces along with Luhansk that make up the Donbas region, where separatist rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Follow the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Spreaker Last week, Russia captured the town of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk. After the capture of Lysychansk, some analysts predicted that Moscow’s troops would need some time to re-equip and regroup. Russia’s mission to seize Donbas continues While Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of killing civilians in the Donbas region, Moscow has voted to continue its fight in the region. Read more: Ukrainian taxi driver beaten, stunned and held in forest pit Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia has only just begun to act Russia’s ambassador to the UK has said his country is unlikely to withdraw from Ukraine’s southern coast. Andrei Kelin said: “We will liberate all of Donbas. “Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experienced that after the withdrawal the provocations start and all the people are shot and all that.”
