At least six people were killed and five others injured on Sunday in a Russian strike on an apartment building in Chasiv Yar town, eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said.
โThe rescue operation is underway. Rescuers were able to bring out six dead and five injured,โ Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
โAt least 30 others are under the rubbleโ of the four-storey building, he said, after it was hit by a Russian Uragan missile.
The building was partially destroyed, AFP correspondents reported after arriving at the scene where rescuers with a mechanical digger were clearing the area.
Having endured long battles to capture cities in the neighbouring Lugansk region, Russia is now trying to push deeper into Donetsk to consolidate its hold over the entire Donbas region in the east.
โThe rescuers have so far been able to establish contact with two people underneath the rubble,โ Kyrylenko said.
According to the governor, 591 civilians have been killed while 1,548 others have been injured so far in the Donetsk region since the Russian invasion began on February 24.