SLOVIANSK, Ukraine
Russia shelled a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Friday, killing six people including a toddler who was pulled out of the rubble but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital, police said.
Sloviansk lies in a part of the Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control. It is close to territory controlled by Russia. AFP journalists saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of a residential building and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.
Authorities earlier said five people were killed but that there was possibly a child under the rubble of the building, a typical Soviet-era housing estate. “The death toll in Sloviansk has risen to six,” Ukrainian police said on Twitter.
“A child died in an ambulance after being pulled out from the rubble.” Ukraine´s First Lady Olena Zelenska said the child was a two-year-old boy and sent her condolences to the family during this “indescribable grief.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier decried Russia for “brutally shelling” residential buildings and “killing people in broad daylight.” The street below — including a playground — was covered in a layer of concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from school books and children´s drawings.
