SLOVIANSK: The death toll from a Russian strike on a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk climbed to 11 on Saturday as Moscow claimed advances near embattled Bakhmut.

Sloviansk lies in a part of the eastern Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control. According to Kyiv, it was on Friday struck by seven missiles which hit five buildings, five homes, a school and an administrative building.

“The number of victims of the shelling of Sloviansk has risen to 11 people,” a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service in the region, Veronika Bakhal, said in televised remarks.

A previous toll reported nine dead, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble but died on his way to hospital, and 21 wounded. Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska sent her condolences to the child’s family during this “indescribable grief”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia for “brutally shelling” residential buildings and “killing people in broad daylight”.

Journalists saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of the typical Soviet-era housing block, and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.

The street below — including a playground — was covered in concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from school books and children’s drawings.

In southern Ukraine, a 48-year-old woman and her 28-year-old daughter were killed Saturday in Russian shelling in the city of Kherson, the regional administration said on Telegram. Sloviansk lies 45 kilometres northwest of the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut, the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s invasion.

Russian troops have been battling since last sum­mer to capture the town in eastern Ukraine, which has taken on huge symbolic importance even though analysts say it has little strategic value.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023