Sunday has been declared a day of mourning in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine after 28 people were reportedly killed by shelling in the city of Lysychansk, the head of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic” Leonid Pasechnik has announced.
The day of mourning for “the victims of the barbaric shelling of Lysychansk,” followed Saturday’s attack on a bakery by “Ukrainian nationalists” that left 28 people dead, including one child, Pasechnik said.
Emergency services had pulled a further 10 people from the rubble, Pasechnik added, while the regional Health Ministry reported that four more people were in a critical condition following the attack.
Pasechnik accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of deliberately targeting civilians at the bakery because of its “lack of success on the front.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the attack evidence of the “Kiev regime’s criminal nature” and said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had “turned into a terrorist organisation.”
Amid Russian state media reports that the attack was carried out using US-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers, Zakharova called it a “thank you” from the “Kiev extremists” to the European Union for its financial support of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented.
