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Death toll from Russian strike on Ukraine’s Pokrovsk rises to seven: officials

08.08.2023 12:00
The number of people killed in a Russian double rocket attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Monday night has risen to seven, authorities have said.
Damage at the site of a Russian missile attack in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Tuesday, August 8, 2023.
Damage at the site of a Russian missile attack in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Tuesday, August 8, 2023.PAP/EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE HANDOUT

The latest figures were provided by regional officials on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported. 

Russian missiles hit a popular hotel, pizzeria and apartments in Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, killing seven people and injuring scores more, according to officials.

The number of wounded stood at 81 on Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, told reporters: “Updated data as of 11am (9am BST) regarding the victims of the shelling in Pokrovsk. Seven people died (five civilians, a rescuer and a soldier). 81 wounded (39 civilians, including two children – born in 2006 and 2012; 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel).”

He added: “As of 11am, 12 high-rise buildings were damaged; hotel buildings, prosecutor’s office, pension fund, pharmacy, two shops, two cafes and two civilian cars.”

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on the Telegram social messaging app: “We are resuming clearing the rubble. At night, we were forced to suspend work due to the high threat of repeated shelling.”

The Druzhba (Friendship) Hotel in the centre of Pokrovsk was hit directly by a Russian rocket, with several floors destroyed, the Reuters news agency reported.

The hotel and the nearby Corleone pizzeria, which was also damaged in the attack, were popular among journalists covering the war, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.

The Druzhba was one of the few hotels still operating in the Donetsk province, close to the frontline, according to Reuters. 

Four dead after Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia

Meanwhile, two people died and nine were injured as a result of a Russian attack on Kruglyakivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday, Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reported on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday morning, Russian shelling injured two people in Kozacha Lopan, also in the Kharkiv province, The Guardian reported.   

Russian troops also shelled Ukraine’s southern Kherson region 68 times over the past 24 hours, killing one person and injuring thirteen, according to officials.

Residential areas and a “point of invincibility” in the provincial capital Kherson City were targeted, Suspilne reported.

The body of a man was found under the rubble of a destroyed house in Novodanylivka, and an 83-year-old woman was injured in a nighttime shelling attack on Preobrazhenka, both in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, according to Suspilne, as quoted by The Guardian.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.

Tuesday is day 531 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, Reuters, The Guardian