Authorities said that a Russian rocket attack that struck a restaurant in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, resulted in at least three fatalities and more than 40 injuries.
According to Ukrainian authorities, two S-300 surface-to-air missiles were launched by Russia towards the city.
“Three dead, including a child born in 2008, have been pulled out of the debris. A youngster born in 2022 was one among the wounded, the interior ministry said on Telegram.
42 persons were hurt, according to the Ukrainian emergency service, in the attack that demolished the well-known Ria Pizza restaurant, which was reported on Telegram.
Yevgen, who had been eating with two companions, said, “There were a lot of people in there — there are kids beneath the debris.
After the explosion, he told AFP, “We were just about to leave,” but one of his buddies was now “under the rubble”.
Soldiers and rescue personnel sought for other casualties as a throng immediately gathered at the scene, where flames were still blazing.
The governor of Donetsk, one of the biggest cities in the embattled east of the nation still under Ukrainian control, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that two Russian missiles had targeted the city, which formerly had a population of 150,000.
Ruslan, a 32-year-old chef at the establishment, told AFP that “there was a good crowd” there when the rocket struck.
“I had just arrived: I was standing there, and then I was buried,” he said. I was fortunate.
Weeping, Natalia said that her 23-year-old half-brother Nikita was inside, next to the pizza oven.
She stated, “They can’t get him out, he was covered” in rubble.
In the attack on the city, which Russia has often attacked since its invasion in February 2022, other surrounding structures were also destroyed.
About 30 kilometres (18 miles) separate Kramatorsk from the front line.
“People told me they heard a plane flying, then there was a hissing and an explosion,” a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier who was close when the attack took place and went by the alias “Ghost” told AFP.
He hurried inside the eatery to assist the rescuers. “A girl was hurt and confined. They still haven’t been able to free her, he said.