Yevguen is covered in dust. He was dining at a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, when a Russian strike destroyed the crowded establishment.
“There are a lot of people down there. There are children under the debris,” the man told AFP, visibly still in shock after the explosion that hit the Ria Pizza in the early evening.
Yevguen and two of his friends managed to get out of the gutted restaurant, but another is still inside. “We were about to leave, he’s under the debris,” he explains.
In front of the restaurant’s destroyed facade and its interior still partially on fire, a crowd of civilians gathered alongside soldiers, emergency workers, the town’s mayor and the governor.
The authorities reported at least three dead (including a child) and 42 injured in the strike that hit this establishment in the center of Kramatorsk, popular with both the press and the military.
According to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, two rockets were fired at this city of 150,000 inhabitants, the last large agglomeration under Ukrainian control in the East, located about thirty kilometers from the front.
Rouslan, a 32-year-old chef, confirms that there were “quite a lot of people” at the time of the strike. “I arrived, I was standing there and it buried me”, he says before pointing to the sky: “I was lucky”.
Natalia, a woman standing outside, says her half-brother Nikita, 23, is still inside.
“They can’t get it out (debris), it was covered. Tiles fell on it,” she said in tears.
Near the restaurant, a few apartment buildings were also hit, breaking their windows.
A 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier with the nom de guerre “Ghost” was nearby when the strike took place. His hands are still covered in dust.
“The guys told me they heard a plane fly. There was a whistle and then an explosion,” he told AFP.
He then entered the restaurant to help. “There was a girl stuck, she was injured. They haven’t gotten her out yet,” he continues.
Located west of Bakhmout, a devastated city that was the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, Kramatorsk has been repeatedly targeted by Russian bombardments.
The deadliest was that of Kramatorsk station, hit in April 2022, a few weeks after the start of the Russian invasion and when a crowd of civilians tried to leave the city.
This strike left 61 dead and more than 160 injured out of the approximately 4,000 civilians massed, a tragedy that deeply traumatized the population. Moscow had for its part denied any involvement.
An important railway hub, Kramatorsk is also home to military installations. It has been the de facto regional capital since the eastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk were captured by pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow in 2014.
27/06/2023 23:08:38 – Kramatorsk (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
