At least 15 dead and up to 20 buried under rubble as Russian missile hits Ukrainian block of flats

At least 15 people have been killed after a Russian rocket hit a block of flats in a town in eastern Ukraine and there are fears that up to 20 people may be trapped in the rubble.

The Saturday night missile attack in Chasiv Yar is the latest in a recent burst of high-casualty attacks on civilian buildings by Moscow.

Rescuers said they had managed to speak to three people trapped in the rubble.

At least 19 people died when a Russian rocket hit a shopping centre in the city of Kremenchuk in late June and 21 people were killed when an apartment building and recreation area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region this month.

Russia has repeatedly claimed that it is hitting only targets of military value in the war. There was no comment on Chasiv Yar at a Russian Defence Ministry briefing on Sunday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region that includes Chasiv Yar, said the town of about 12,000 was hit by Uragan rockets, which are fired from truck-borne systems.

Chasiv Yar is about 12 miles (20km) southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they grind westward.

The Donetsk region is one of two provinces along with Luhansk that make up the Donbas region, where separatist rebels have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014. Last week, Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk.

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Russian forces are raising “true hell” in the Donbas region, despite assessments they were taking an operational pause, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Saturday.

After the seizure of Lysychansk, some analysts predicted Moscow’s troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.

But “so far there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,” Mr Haidai said.

He later said the Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.