The death toll in Russia’s brutal attack on a Ukrainian apartment complex has risen to 30, as civilians continue to suffer during the war’s fifth month.
Rescuers in eastern Ukraine are still searching for survivors in the five-story block that was struck late Saturday in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk. It was hit by rockets from a truck system, Ukraine said.
The building, now a pile of rubble, collapsed from the strike. Nine people have been rescued alive so far, according to the country’s emergency service, and 65 percent of the rubble had been cleared by Monday night.
“I was thrown into the bathroom, it was all chaos, I was in shock, all covered in blood,” a resident named Venera said while crying. She lost her kittens in the attack.
“By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full up of rubble, three floors fell down. I never found the kittens.”
Residents of the collapsed building mostly worked in nearby factories
One local named Valerii said on Sunday that his sister and 9-year-old nephew had been trapped in the building.
Damages in a home in the aftermath of a Russian rocket that hit an apartment residential block, in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region. AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty
Local residents watch rescuers work as they wait for news about their relatives, who are under the rubble of a residential building. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich 
The country has carried out 34 strikes since Saturday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich“Now I’m waiting for a miracle,” he said before beginning to pray. “We do not have good expectations, but I am avoiding such thoughts.” It’s unclear if they made it out alive.
Another building resident, Oksana, said she was in the apartment on the third floor when the building was hit.
“There was an explosion, all the windows blew out and I was thrown to the ground,” the 45-year-old said. “My kitchen walls and balcony have completely vanished.
The building, now a pile of rubble, collapsed from the strike. Nine people have been rescued alive so far. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
The attack came as the Kremlin continues to focus on the eastern portion of Ukraine in its effort to win full control of the Donbas region. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich”I called my children to tell them I was alive,” she added.
The attack came as the Kremlin continues to focus on the eastern portion of Ukraine in its effort to win full control of the Donbas region.
The country has carried out 34 strikes since Saturday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Anyone who orders such strikes, everyone who carries them out in ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills absolutely consciously,” Zelensky said Sunday. “After such hits, they won’t be able to say that they didn’t know or didn’t understand something.”
With Post wires
