Eight dead in Russian strike on eastern Ukraine restaurant

The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit a restaurant in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk has risen to eight, with three children among the dead, authorities said Wednesday.

“As of 07:00 (0400 GMT) on June 28, the bodies of eight dead people (including three children, two of them born in 2008 and 2011) were unblocked from under the rubble of the destroyed cafe building,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian emergency service said on Telegram that 47 people were injured in the strike, which destroyed the popular Ria Pizza restaurant.

“There were a lot of people in there — there are children under the rubble,” said Yevgen, who had been dining with two friends.

“We were just about to leave,” he said, but one of his friends was now “under the rubble”, he told AFP after the explosion.

Three Colombians, including the writer Hector Abad, who were visiting Ukraine to express their solidarity, were slightly injured in the incident.

A crowd quickly gathered at the site, where fires continued to burn as soldiers and rescue workers searched for other victims.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two Russian missiles had struck the city that was once home to 150,000 people, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the country’s besieged east.

“There was a good crowd” at the restaurant when the missile hit, one of its cooks, 32-year-old Ruslan, told AFP.

“I had just arrived: I was standing there, and then I was buried,” he said. “I was lucky.”

Natalia, in tears, said her half-brother Nikita, 23, was inside near the pizza oven.

“They can’t get him out, he was covered” by debris, she said.

Several buildings nearby were also damaged in the strike on the city, which Russia has often targeted since its invasion in February 2022.

Kramatorsk lies about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the front line.

“People told me they heard a plane flying, there was a hissing and then an explosion,” a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier who gave his war name as “Ghost”, and was nearby when the strike occurred, told AFP.

He quickly entered the restaurant to help rescue workers. “A girl was trapped, injured. They haven’t yet been able to get her out,” he said.