Two Russian missile strikes hit the city centre of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 31, Ukrainian officials have said.
The strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, occurred within 40 minutes of each other, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
The attack damaged nine- and five-story buildings, residential houses, a hotel where foreign journalists used to stay, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, he said.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said one of the strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, killed four civilians, and the other killed the deputy head of the regional branch of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
At least 31 people — including 19 policemen, five rescuers and one child — have been wounded in the attack, Mr Klymenko said.
The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but “broken and scorched stones” in eastern Ukraine.
His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.
The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — was not invited.
A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.
The Kremlin’s demands include Kyiv recognising its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.
He said that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced on Monday that it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.
It claimed the woman “was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelensky’s visit”.
The woman attempted to establish Zelensky’s route, times and visits in the region.
She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.
Mr Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow’s forces approached.
He has been one of Ukraine’s unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognisable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.
Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
Mr Prokudin said Kherson had endured a “tough night” as the Russians “covered the central part of the city with fire”.
A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the north-eastern Kharkiv province, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
