Ukrainian shelling on the eastern occupied city of Lysychansk killed at least 20 people, Russia said Saturday, with at least 10 others wounded and rescue operations ongoing.
Moscow’s occupation forces said Kyiv had targeted a bakery that is popular on weekends.
The attack hit almost two years into Russia’s Ukraine offensive.
Lysychansk, a city in the Luhansk region that had a population of around 110,000 people before Moscow’s offensive, fell to Russian forces after a brutal battle in the summer of 2022.
“In Lysychansk, employees of the Russian emergency ministry recovered the bodies of 20 people from under the rubble,” the ministry said on Telegram.
It showed a video of rescuers working in the dark, pulling out one dead body from the rubble before finding a wounded woman alive and putting her on a stretcher to take her out of the heavily destroyed building.
The ministry earlier said it had pulled out 10 survivors from under the rubble and said rescue operations will continue into the night.
The Moscow-installed governor of Luhansk, Leonid Pasechnik, said earlier that Kyiv had targeted a bakery that was known to have fresh bread on weekends.
RIA Novosti published a video of a heavily damaged building, with emergency workers pulling out an entirely crushed car.
The one-story building had a large sign on it that read “Restaurant Adriatic” and appeared entirely destroyed and covered in rubble.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed Western weapons were used in the attack and said it expected “quick and unconditional condemnation” from international organizations.
The front in eastern Ukraine has barely moved in months but battles continue to be bloody with intensified attacks on both sides this winter.
The attack came as Kyiv said Russia hit it with a fresh barrage of Iranian-made drones, which targeted energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, leaving thousands without power.
Moscow-installed authorities said one wounded man in “serious condition” was taken to hospital in the city of Luhansk.
Lysychansk lies some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Russia took control of it and its twin city of Sieverodonetsk in summer 2022 after some of the most brutal battles of its almost two-year offensive.
