Russian airstrikes kill 20 and injure over 40 in brutal display of Kremlin wrath in eastern Ukraine

A total of 20 people were killed overnight on Friday and on Saturday morning in Russian airstrikes on the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions of eastern Ukraine.

In the Donetsk region city of Dobropillia, 14 people were killed and 47 more were injured when two ballistic missiles damaged eight five-storey residential buildings, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) announced on Saturday, adding that once the emergency services had reached the site, a secondary Russian drone strike had been launched.

Six other people were killed elsewhere in the Donetsk region, while three more were killed in the neighbouring Kharkiv region, BBC News Russian reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s “vile and inhumane tactics of intimidation”, which, he said, demonstrated that Russia’s goals remained unchanged. He called on the international community to increase sanctions on Russia and do everything it could to stop Vladimir Putin financing his war.

Dobropillia is in a Ukrainian-controlled area of the Donetsk region, close to the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine are currently mounting a counterattack against the Russian forces aiming to capture the entire Donetsk region, which Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday that 31 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over Russia overnight. Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said the northwestern Russian region was attacked by two drones, one of which was intercepted on approach, while the other was destroyed over an oil refinery, damaging an oil tank.