The death toll from a Ukrainian strike on a bakery in the occupied eastern city of Lysychansk has climbed to 28 people, including one child, Russia said Sunday. Moscow’s occupation forces Saturday said Ukrainian forces had struck a building that housed a bakery popular with locals on weekends. Kyiv has not yet commented on the strike.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday visited his embattled country’s troops on the southern front, as Moscow’s offensive drags on for almost two years. Lysychansk is in the occupied Lugansk region that fell to Russian forces after one of the most brutal battles during Moscow’s long offensive in summer 2022. Before the Russian army entered Ukraine, the city had a population of around 110,000 people. “Search operations continue on the site of the collapsed bakery… 28 people, including a child, have died,” the Russian emergency situations ministry posted on Telegram.
Four of the rescued individuals are in the most critical state, while two others are in a severe state. The city of Lugansk has been under pro-Russian separatist control since 2014. Zelensky on Sunday visited troops in Robotyne — a southern frontline village that Kyiv retook from Russian forces last summer but has since been under relentless attack. Kyiv recaptured the small village in the Zaporizhzhia region in August last year in what was hailed as a major success in the counter-offensive against Russian forces. “I have the great honour to be here today, to reward you, because you have such a difficult and decisive mission on your shoulders to repel the enemy and win this war,” Zelensky told fighters. Later Sunday, his spokesman said Zelensky had been “relatively close” to explosions during his trip.
