7 dead in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine

Seven people were killed in a series of Russian missile strikes on a city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Monday evening, officials said.

Five civilians, a rescuer and a soldier were killed in the strikes on the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Tuesday morning post on Telegram. Another 81 people were injured — 39 civilians, 31 police officers, seven emergency responders and four soldiers — he added.

Two strikes hit the city roughly 40 minutes apart on Monday evening, damaging 12 high-rise buildings, Kyrylenko said.

The chief of Ukraine’s National Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, accused Moscow on Tuesday of “deliberately” hitting the same area a second time, while emergency workers were responding to the initial strike.

“All of [the police] were there because they were needed, putting their efforts into rescuing people after the first strike,” Vyhivskyi said. “They knew that under the rubble were the injured — they needed to react, to dig, to retrieve, to save. And the enemy deliberately struck the second time.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Moscow on Monday for “trying to leave only broken and scorched stones,” following the latest missile strikes.

“We have to stop the Russian terror,” he said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves lives. Everyone in the world who helps Ukraine will defeat the terrorists together with us.”

“Russia will be held accountable for everything it has done in this terrible war,” Zelensky added.

The Associated Press contributed.