WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russian missile attack kills 11 in Pokrovsk in Ukraine's east, rescue efforts continue
A Russian missile strike killed 11 people and injured 10 on Saturday in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region said.
Five of the dead were children. A U.N. official in Ukraine expressed horror at the incident.
Rescue efforts extended into the night. Pictures posted online by regional governor Vadym Filashkin showed teams sifting through piles of smouldering rubble in the dark as well as a burned-out vehicle.
Filashkin told Ukrainian television that Russian forces at about 3 p.m. engaged in "mass shelling" of Pokrovsk with S-300 missiles.
"As a result of this barbaric attack, 11 people died, including five children aged from three to 17 years," he said.
"Ten people were injured. Rescue operations are continuing. Closer to morning we will have a better understanding of the final numbers of those who were injured."
Filashkin had earlier said the main strike had targeted the town of Pokrovsk and nearby villages lying about 80 km (50 miles) from the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.
Russian forces, he said, were "trying to inflict as much grief as possible on our land."
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the attack "quite simply targeted ordinary, private homes. And Russia must be made to feel that none of these strikes will pass without consequences for the terrorist state."
"TRULY HORRIFIED"
Denise Brown, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said she was "truly horrified" by the strikes and, particularly, the deaths of children.
"These were just children who have been killed because of this war," Brown said in a statement.
Recent Russian attacks on towns, she said, were "leaving behind an outrageous number of children. Women and men killed and injured and a trail of loss and destruction."
There was no immediate response to a request for comment on the incident from Russia's Defence Ministry.
A Russian military statement issued earlier on Saturday said its forces had struck a command post used by a Ukrainian military formation near Pokrovsk, referring to the town by its Soviet-era name Krasnoarmeisk.
And a senior Moscow official working in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, Rodion Miroshnik, said Ukrainian forces had shelled a hospital in Donetsk, injuring three patients. Pictures he posted online showed damage to rooms and some outbuildings.
Russia denies targeting civilians in the war launched with the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But its forces in the past two weeks have intensified attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns. Ukraine has retaliated with strikes on targets in the Black Sea and on some Russian border areas, including missile and drone attacks that killed 25 people in the city of Belgrade this week.
The governor of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, adjacent to Donetsk, said one person was killed in drone strikes near the town of Nikopol, a frequent Russian target on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
And officials said three people were injured in Russian shelling of areas of Kherson region to the southwest.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine shells hospital in Donetsk on Christmas Eve
The Ukrainian forces launched multiple attacks against civilian targets in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on Saturday, with one of strikes damaging a hospital in Donetsk, according to local authorities.
At least three people were injured after a shell hit the Central Clinical Hospital No 6 in the Leninsky district of Donetsk, according to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination. All of the victims were the patients at the facility. The attack also damaged several houses in other parts of Donetsk, with some witnesses calling it a “Christmas miracle” that no one was seriously injured.
Photos and videos from the scene showed the aftermath of the explosion, with multiple windows shattered and glass shards broken blinds scattered throughout the hospital wards.
Donetsk frequently comes under rocket attacks due to its proximity to the front line. Four people were killed after Kiev's forces shelled the city shortly after midnight on January 1 in the first deadly attack of 2024.
As Russia prepared to celebrate Christmas on January 7, the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to cancel its traditional night services in the capital of the Belgorod region and all settlements located within a 20-kilometer-wide zone alongside the Russian border with Ukraine.
The city of Belgorod, located just around 40 kilometers away from the border, Belgorod has been the target of Ukrainian missile attacks and shelling since December 30. In that time, a massive strike has claimed the lives of 24 people and left more than 100 injured. According to the Russian military, Kiev’s forces used banned cluster munitions in their attack.
Reuters/RT