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17 Killed In Russian Strike On Ukraine Market Town

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine’s president says at least 17 people, including a child, have been killed in a Russian missile attack hitting a market, a pharmacy and shops in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka.

Volodymyr Zelensky said those killed were “people who did nothing wrong” – and warned the death toll could increase as at least 33 persons were injured.

“This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” he said about the attack, overshadowing his face-to-face meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Moscow did not comment but has previously denied deliberately targeting civilian sites.

Kostyantynivka is close to the battlefield and was hit on various occasions earlier this year, such as on April 2 when six civilians died when missiles and rockets hit 16 apartment blocks and a nursery school.

Later, on May 13, two people – including a 15-year-old girl – were killed in an attack with Smerch rockets damaging high-rise buildings, houses, a petrol station, a pharmacy, and shops.

On July 24, three children were killed in an attack in which Ukraine said Russia used cluster munitions, authorities said.

RUSSIAN CONTROL

Kostiantynivka is about 17 miles (27 kilometers) from the city of Bakhmut – in the Donetsk region – where fighting is known to have been intense for some time.

The city of Donetsk has been controlled by Russia’s proxy authorities since 2014, who have accused Ukraine’s military of targeting it since Russia’s invasion began in February last year.

Wednesday’s attack came as U.S. Secretary Blinken visited Ukraine, where he met Zelensky and other officials.

In the hours before he arrived, sirens wailed across the country, and Kyiv’s air defense system was busy intercepting missiles aimed at the capital, witnesses noted.

Blinken used his fourth trip to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in 18 months – to announce another U.S. aid “package of more than $1 billion.”

Yet Wednesday’s apparent Russian strike on Kostyantynivka not only complicated Blinken’s visit, it also added to mounting concerns that the war in Ukraine escalates and could spread to other nations.

Neighboring Romania’s defense minister said Wednesday that parts of a Russian drone have fallen on Romanian territory.

DRONES DETONATE

The minister, Angel Tilvar, told Romanian media that he could “confirm that pieces which might be the elements of a drone were found.”

Ukraine said on Monday that Russian drones had detonated on the territory of NATO military alliance member Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube.

Bucharest denied that its territory had been hit.

The defense and foreign ministries, along with Romania’s president, Iohannis Klaus, had all said Russian attacks did not cause a direct threat to Romanian territory.

However, there were doubts Wednesday whether that position could be maintained. This isn’t the only NATO member state hit by the war in neighboring Ukraine.

In November last year, two people died in a stray missile blast in the Polish village of Przewodow, some 15 kilometers (over 9 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Western officials suggested the missile that killed two male farm workers, one 58 and the other 62, was caused by Ukraine’s air defenses responding to a Russian missile strike, though Kyiv denied wrongdoing.