A Russian missile strike on a crowded pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine has killed 10 people, including 14-year-old twin sisters, and injured at least 61.
Four of the dead were children.
Announcing the deaths of the teenage twins on Telegram, the educational department of Kramatorsk City Council said: “Russian missiles stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels.”
The sisters have been named as Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko.
The other two children were believed to be 12 and 17 years old. The wounded included a baby born in 2022.
The building housing the restaurant, which was popular with soldiers and journalists in the town of Kramatorsk, was reduced to a twisted web of metal beams in the attack on Tuesday.
On Wednesday Ukrainian authorities arrested a man they accused of helping Russia direct the strike.
The Ukrainian Security Service announced it had detained a man – an employee of the local gas transport company – whom it suspects of directing the strike on the restaurant.
He filmed the restaurant for the Russians and informed them about its popularity, the security service said in a Telegram post.
Russia has insisted throughout the war that it does not aim at civilian targets, although its air strikes have killed many civilians.
“Strikes are only carried out on objects that are in one way or another linked to military infrastructure,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday.
Rescuers combed through the rubble to search for survivors as residents stood outside embracing each other and surveying the damage.
“I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here. Everything has been blown out there,” said Valentyna, 64.
“None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century.”
A Belgian journalist who had just left the restaurant at the time of the attack told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday that he had heard two “huge explosions” so turned back to see “dead people, people screaming, people crying, huge chaos”.
“There are still people underneath the rubble, because it’s a big restaurant. Now I can hear people still screaming underneath the rubble as rescuers are trying to save them,” he added.
