Russia-Ukraine war live: Kramatorsk strike death toll rises to 10; Nato to strengthen eastern defences | Ukraine

• At least ten people have been killed after a strike on Tuesday which hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk on Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The dead included at least three children, and more than 60 people are said to have been wounded. Emergency services said seven people had been rescued from under the rubble.

 

• The Ukrainian government appointed a new head of state-owned weapons producer Ukroboronprom on Wednesday. “The newly appointed general director faces three main tasks: to increase the production of ammunition and military equipment, build an effective anti-corruption infrastructure in the company, and transform Ukroboronprom,” Oleksander Kamyshyn, minister for Ukraine’s strategic industries, said. The appointment of Herman Smetanin is part of a broader transformation of the key industry, officials said.

• Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, reports that a 70-year-old woman was injured in shelling in the Kupiansk district.

• Ukraine’s air force has reported that overnight it destroyed six “Shahed” drones. Two drones were shot down over Cherkasy region, but two more hit an empty warehouse in the region, it said.

• Ukraine’s defence minister says Ukrainian forces have made “certain gains” that have not been made public and that the bulk of its troops reserves have yet to be deployed. Oleksiy Reznikov told the Financial Times the retaking of small villages from Russian occupation in recent weeks were “not the main event” in Kyiv’s planned attack.

• One of the Russian-imposed leaders in occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, reports that explosions have been heard in the city of Polohy. On Telegram he has suggested that three explosions were heard near the train depot there. The claims have not been independently verified.

• Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, claimed that over 200 people had their water supply interrupted after a Ukrainian cross-border strike on the region.

• Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, has confirmed that his country is to supply Ukraine with two Nasams launchers. Nausėda is visiting Kyiv on Wednesday ahead of travelling to an EU summit later in the week.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the parliament of Croatia for recognising the Holodomor as a genocide.

• Gen Sergey Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, had advance knowledge that the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning a rebellion against Moscow’s defence officials, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s emergency services say that rescue work continues at the site of the strike in Kramatorsk, which has claimed the lives of 10 people including three children. Fifty-six people have been wounded, including a baby.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the national police service now says that ten people were killed in Kramatorsk.

Ukrainian authorities and social media are widely sharing this photograph, which purports to be two 14-year-old girls killed in the Russian strike, which hit a popular restaurant in the city.

The children are being named as sisters Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the parliament of Croatia for recognising the Holodomor as a genocide. Ukraine’s president tweeted:

The parliament of the Republic of Croatia has adopted the declaration on recognition of the 1932-1933 Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. I am grateful to the Republic of Croatia for this historic vote. The world will never put up with the crimes of the Kremlin – neither past nor present.

The Ukrainian government appointed a new head of state-owned weapons producer Ukroboronprom on Wednesday, as Kyiv seeks to boost domestic weapons production.

“The newly appointed general director faces three main tasks: to increase the production of ammunition and military equipment, build an effective anti-corruption infrastructure in the company, and transform Ukroboronprom,” Reuters reports Oleksander Kamyshyn, minister for Ukraine’s strategic industries, said.

The appointment of Herman Smetanin, who has been serving as head of the Kharkiv Malyshev plant in northeast Ukraine, as the new general director of Ukroboronprom is part of a broader transformation of the key industry, officials said.

One of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, reports that explosions have been heard in the city of Polohy. On Telegram he has suggested that three explosions were heard near the train depot there. He stated that he had no information yet on any damages or casualties. The claims have not been independently verified.

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, reports that Russian shelling of his region has continued this morning. On Telegram he wrote:

The enemy continues to fire on peaceful residents of Kharkiv oblast. Unfortunately, there are victims.

This morning, the Russian occupiers fired at a village in the Kupiansk district with surface-to-air missiles. A 70-year-old woman who was in her own yard during the shelling was seriously injured. Doctors are now fighting for her life.

The claims have not been independently verified.

The Kramatorsk city mayor has confirmed that the death toll has risen to nine and added that the latest victim is a boy.

“Rescuers pulled a boy’s body from the rubble,” Oleksandr Goncharenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday morning as search and rescue operations continued. Reuters reports that he did not give the boy’s age.

Emergency services said seven people had been rescued and put the number of wounded at 56, slightly lower than the figure of 60 provided by the prosecutor general. Officials said two girls aged 14 and a girl aged 17 were among the dead.

Reuters spoke to one person on the scene, Valentyna, a 64-year-old woman who declined to give her surname. She said she had run there “after the explosion because I rented a cafe here. Everything has been blown out. None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century.”

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has posted a status update to Telegram, where he has said that cross-border shelling from Ukraine has continued, hitting multiple settlements.

He reported no injuries, but stated that explosive devices were dropped from a drone over one village, and “as a result of the attack, one of the infrastructure facilities was damaged and about 220 residents were temporarily left without water. The water supply has now been restored”.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Here are some images that have been sent over the news wires from Kozatske in the Kherson region. The settlement sits of the right-bank on the Dnipro, directly to the north-west of the destroyed Kakhovka dam.

The death toll in the attack on Kramatorsk has increased to nine. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that as of 10am local time, “the bodies of nine dead people, including three minors, were retrieved from the rubble”.

It goes on to report that the number of wounded has risen to 56 people, according to the latest data from the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office.

Suspilne reports that “Rescuers continue to clear the rubble, and have rescued seven people, the state emergency service reported. Dog handlers and psychologists also work on site.”

Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, has shared on social media what purports to be pictures of a baby “wounded by fragments of Russian missiles”. He said:

Propagandists on Russian TV justify the actions of the army and claim that they hit a military facility. It looks like a small Ukrainian child is a military facility.

Other unconfirmed social media reports have suggested that the three children killed in the strike were a 17-year-old and two 14-year-old girls. The claims have not been independently verified.

There are reports of explosions being heard in occupied Melitopol. Vladimir Rogov, one of the Russian-imposed leaders in the region, has said on Telegram it is “loud”, and the work of air defence.

Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, has confirmed that his country is to supply Ukraine with two Nasams launchers. Nausėda is visiting Kyiv today.

Ukraine’s air force has reported that overnight it destroyed six “Shahed” drones. Two drones were shot down over Cherkasy region, but two more hit an empty warehouse in the region, it said. The claims have not been independently verified.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that three people were injured overnight by Russian shelling in the Kherson region. Listing a number of settlements that were struck, it claims “the Kherson community was hit 12 times, 49 shells were fired. Three residents of the community were injured.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

The Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, will meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv later today to discuss Nato as Ukraine seeks to enter the alliance, ahead of the forthcoming summit in July in Vilnius.

Reuters notes Nato members are close to agreeing incremental steps to strengthen ties with Ukraine by then, but have yet to resolve differences over how to address Ukraine’s desire for membership.

The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has ruled out the country joining the alliance until the war is over.