© EPA-EFE
At least eight people have been killed in shelling on the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, according to the Russian occupation. Another ten are said to have been injured.
Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 9:31 PM
According to the Russian occupiers, a bakery was hit in the city. “There are civilians under the rubble,” said Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Russian-annexed Luhansk Oblast. He accuses Ukraine of attacking the civilian population because of the lack of success at the front. According to the occupiers, the city has come under fire with Himars rocket artillery.
There is uncertainty about the number of people believed to be under the rubble. Pasechnik spoke to up to forty people. Local civil protection said only that about ten people have been discovered under the rubble so far, including fatalities.
Ukraine has not yet responded to the attack. The Russian claim also cannot be independently verified.
Before the war, Lysychansk was a large city with about 100,000 inhabitants. In the summer of 2022, the city was captured by Russian troops after heavy fighting. At that time the city had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. According to the Russians, that number increased to 37,000 by the fall of last year. Lysychansk is about 10 kilometers from the front line.