Ukraine Arrests Local Man for Allegedly Directing Missile Strike that Resulted in 10 Deaths at Popular Pizza Restaurant

On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities apprehended a man accused of collaborating with Russia to orchestrate a missile strike that tragically claimed the lives of at least 10 individuals, including three innocent children, at a well-liked pizza restaurant situated in an eastern Ukrainian city.

According to Ukraine’s National Police, the attack took place on Tuesday evening in Kramatorsk, causing injuries to an additional 61 people. This incident marks the latest instance of a Ukrainian city being bombarded—a tactic frequently employed by Russia throughout the ongoing 16-month-long conflict.

The educational department of the Kramatorsk city council lamented the loss of two 14-year-old sisters, describing them as “two angels” whose lives were abruptly ended by Russian missiles, as conveyed in a Telegram post.

Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin confirmed that the third child who perished was 17 years old.

In the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, the office of the regional prosecutor disclosed that four people had died and 42 others were injured, including an eight-month-old infant, following the Russian missile strikes in Kramatorsk and a nearby village on Tuesday (June 27).

The attack inflicted damage on 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building, and a recreational facility, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor.

Search and rescue teams are presently sifting through the rubble in search of bodies and potential survivors.

Despite the recent upheaval resulting from a brief armed uprising over the weekend, the Kremlin’s aerial assault shows no signs of subsiding, as evidenced by this strike and others across Ukraine. Conversely, there has been no apparent military response from Ukraine to capitalize on the turmoil, although Kyiv has been tight-lipped regarding recent developments on the battlefield.

Initially, authorities attributed the Kramatorsk strike to an S-300 missile, a surface-to-air weapon that Russian forces have repurposed for imprecise strikes on urban areas. However, the National Police later revealed that Iskander short-range ballistic missiles had been utilized.

Kramatorsk, which houses the Ukrainian army’s regional headquarters, is a city situated on the front line. The targeted pizza restaurant was a popular destination for journalists, aid workers, soldiers, and local residents.

The Security Service of Ukraine announced the detention of an individual, an employee of a local gas transportation company, suspected of coordinating the attack on the restaurant on behalf of the Russians. According to the Security Service’s Telegram post, he provided the Russians with video footage of the restaurant and informed them of its popularity.

No evidence was provided to substantiate these claims. Throughout the course of the war, Russia has maintained that it does not target civilian sites, although its airstrikes have resulted in the deaths of numerous non-combatants.

Kramatorsk is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex in September of the previous year but does not fully control. Russia has also occupied Crimea since 2015.

The Ukrainian-held territories within the partially occupied provinces have borne the brunt of Russian bombardment and serve as a significant obstacle to resolving the conflict.

The Kremlin demands that Kyiv acknowledge the annexations, whereas Kyiv has categorically refused to engage in negotiations with Russia until its troops withdraw from all occupied territories. Recently, Kyiv launched a highly anticipated counteroffensive aimed at reclaiming the occupied regions.

Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its aerial campaign in Ukraine, even as fighting persists along the front lines.

The Ukrainian presidential office reported that Russian forces shelled 16 settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday and throughout the night.

According to the report, a 77-year-old civilian lost their life in the front-line town of Orikhiv due to Russian shelling, and three individuals were wounded in a nearby village that had recently been recaptured by Kyiv.

Furthermore, the presidential office stated that a Russian supersonic cruise missile struck a cluster of vacation homes in central Ukraine, sparking a fire that resulted in the injury of a child.

Yuras Karmanau, a Big Big News Writer in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Stay updated on the war with AP’s coverage at https://bigbignews.net/russia-ukraine

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• Ukrainian National Police
• Kramatorsk City Council
• Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine
• Security Service of Ukraine
• AP’s Coverage of the War
• Conflict in Ukraine – Wikipedia
• Russian Annexation of Crimea