(Reuters) -A strike by Russian forces on Wednesday on a shopping centre and market in Dobropillia, a town near the front line of the 40-month-old war, killed two people, injured up to 27 and caused widespread damage, officials said.
Vadym Filashkin, governor of eastern Donetsk region, said a 500-kg (1,100-pound) bomb was deployed at 5:20 p.m., when shoppers were out.
He said there were two dead and 22 people injured, with eight nearby apartment blocks and eight cars destroyed. Video posted online showed areas around the shopping centre on fire with smoke billowing skywards.
“Firefighters are extinguishing the blaze as there is a possibility that people are still inside the shopping centre,” Filashkin told Ukrainian television.
“The occupier dropped the bomb at a time when Dobropillia was crowded with people. Many were out shopping. The occupier specifically targeted the shopping centre. All nearby shopping centres have been either destroyed or damaged.”
Ukraine’s national emergency services put the number of injured at 27.
Filashkin had earlier said that some 30 trading stalls had been damaged.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, described the attack as “simply horrific, stupid Russian terror. There is no military logic to their strikes, only an effort to take as many lives as possible.”
Dobropillia lies northwest of Pokrovsk, a focal point for months of Russian forces’ slow advance westward through Donetsk region. An attack on Dobropillia with missiles, rockets and drones in March killed 11 people, including five children.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Leslie Adler)
