Russia has said at least 28 people died in a strike on a bakery in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Lysychansk.
The building, which also housed a restaurant named Adriatic, was hit on Saturday.
Russian officials said servicemen, women and a child were killed in the strike.
The Kremlin said Western-supplied weapons were used in the attack, which it called a “terrorist act” by Ukraine.
Kyiv has not commented, but Ukrainian military bloggers have since claimed that “collaborators” and Russian officials were in the building at the time.
On Monday, the head of the Russia-annexed Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) said that the strike killed the minister of emergency situations, Alexey Poteleshchenko, who had been celebrating his birthday at the restaurant that was hit.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces deliberately targeted the bakery, knowing that “locals traditionally come there on Saturdays for baked goods and groceries, including the elderly and families with children”.
Lysychansk, which is in the eastern Luhansk region, was captured by Russia in July 2022.
Credit: bbc.com
