KYIV (Reuters) -A Russian strike killed five civilians and injured more than 30 in the town of Izium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, partially destroying the city council building, officials said on Tuesday.
Russian forces hit the town’s central district using a ballistic missile, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram, citing preliminary information.
A 15-year-old girl was among the injured and three people were undergoing surgery after the strike, he added.
“This brutality cannot be tolerated. Maximum pressure must be applied to Russia – through military force, sanctions, and diplomacy – to stop the terror and protect lives,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.
Rescuers continued to work at the site, he added.
Syniehubov said there were no military facilities in the area. The missile directly hit the administrative building and damaged another one, as well as residential blocks, he added.
Izium was occupied by Russian forces at the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now approaching its three-year anniversary, and sustained widespread destruction.
After the town was liberated, Ukrainian officials said they found mass graves and accused Russia of war crimes, which Moscow denies.
(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko, Yuliia DysaEditing by Peter Graff and Ros Russell)
