Two dead, 19 injured as Russia strikes Ukraine's Kramatorsk

KYIV - A Russian guided-bomb strike on Ukraine's eastern town of Kramatorsk on Sept 25 killed at least two people and injured 19 more, the Donetsk region governor said.

Moscow troops used two highly destructive bombs, Mr Vadym Filashkin told Radio Liberty, in the attack on the town's centre that damaged two apartment blocks, shops and cars.

People might be trapped under the rubble, he added.

"This is another war crime of the Russians and another sad reminder that there are no absolutely safe places left in the Donetsk region," Mr Filashkin said, on the Telegram messenger.

Video from the site alongside the Telegram post showed rescuers helping an elderly woman to leave a damaged building with smashed windows and piles of construction waste around.

AFP journalists at the scene saw what appeared to be two separate hits around a kilometre apart, both in residential areas.

Thick plumes of smoke billowed over a partially destroyed 10-storey brick block of flats.

Resident Tatyana Rybakova stood nearby, pointing at the place where her flat used to be on the eighth floor, now a gaping hole.

She said she had “crawled away from the window” after a loud bang, and was struggling to come to her senses.

“I understand I have been left without a home: that I do understand,” she added.

The strike also destroyed a five-storey apartment block and nearby restaurants.

Rescuers led an elderly woman, her face bloodied, out of the destroyed block of flats, asking her if she had relatives nearby.

A neighbour, Ms Lyudmyla Shalayeva, said she was cleaning her flat when she saw an explosion and barely had time to shelter in her hall.

“We’re scared every day,” she said.

“But we didn’t expect any shelling right here at us... Who can expect that?“

Kramatorsk, which lies about 20 kilometres from the active combat line, regularly comes under Russian strikes. REUTERS, AFP