By Vitalii Hnidyi and Yuliia Dysa
IZIUM, Ukraine (Reuters) -A Russian strike killed five civilians and wounded 55 on Tuesday in the town of Izium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, partially destroying the city council building, officials said.
A Russian ballistic missile hit the building in the town’s central district, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
Three children were among the injured, who also included many local government and social services workers, he said.
Vitaliya Kliuchanovych told Reuters she was looking for two female relatives, aged 18 and 19, who had gone to collect documents from the passport service. Syniehubov later said both women – one of them pregnant – were among those killed.
Bodies of those killed in the strike lay in black bags on the pavement.
“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, commenting on the strike.
One section of the recently renovated council building had totally collapsed as a result of the strike, all its windows shattered.
Syniehubov said there were no military facilities in the area. One more administrative building was damaged, as well as residential blocks nearby, he added.
Olena Bespala, an employee in the child protection service, was at work when the attack happened.
“The air raid alert sounded only at the moment of the strike. And then, literally one second later, there was an explosion… (There were) plumes of smoke, and everything was blown away,” she said, with her face injuries patched.
Ballistic missiles usually hit targets in Ukrainian regions bordering Russia within just minutes of being detected.
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 Ros Russell and Gareth Jones)
