Russia rains rockets on Kramatorsk as war anniversary approaches

Russian rockets rained down on residential areas in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk Thursday for the second time in 24 hours — even as rescuers sifted through the rubble of an apartment building hit overnight by a missile that killed at least three civilians and wounded 21 others.

The latest barrage targeting eastern Ukraine came as senior European Union officials held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

“Kramatorsk again shattered by explosions — the Russians made two more rocket strikes,” regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in a Telegram post.

He said at least five civilians were wounded in Thursday’s S-300 missile strikes, which hit 16 buildings, a children’s clinic and a school. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko urged residents to stay in shelters.

Russian shelling across Ukraine over the previous 24 hours killed at least eight civilians and wounded 29 others, the presidential office said. The latest death toll included four people who died when a Russian mortar shell hit a basement where they were hiding in the northeastern Chernihiv region.

The situation on the battlefield remained difficult for Ukraine’s outnumbered forces, with Russians continuing their advance from the north and south in a bid to encircle the key eastern city of Bakhmut, using superior troop numbers to try to cut off the Kyiv soldiers’ supply lines, Ukrainian military analyst Yevhen Dikiy said.

“The enemy is able to use its sole resource, which it has in excess – its men,” Dikiy told Espreso TV, describing a landscape to the northeast of Bakhmut “literally covered with corpses.”

Ukraine and its Western allies said Moscow has suffered huge losses around Bakhmut, sending in waves of poorly equipped troops, including thousands of ex-convicts.

“We’re both firing with everything we have,” said a Belarusian volunteer fighting for Ukraine inside Bakhmut.

The Kremlin’s forces are in a hurry to secure a breakthrough ahead of the Feb. 24 one-year anniversary of the invasion — and before Ukraine starts receiving the first shipments of battle tanks and other modern military equipment pledged by the US and its European allies.

Meanwhile, Zelensky met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv ahead of what officials described as a summit set for Friday. The last such summit was held in the Ukrainian capital in October 2021 — four months before the start of the war.

Von der Leyen praised wartime Ukraine’s “brilliant application” for European Union membership, though Brussels officials note that Ukraine joining the 27-nation bloc is still a long way off.

Ahead of possible membership, von der Leyen said, the commission is proposing that Kyiv “join key European programs — this will give Ukraine benefits close to those of EU membership in many areas.”

EU assistance for Ukraine, she said, has reached 50 billion euros since the start of Russia’s war.

She said the EU plans to adopt a 10th package of sanctions against Russia before Feb. 24. Von der Leyen also announced that the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression in Ukraine would be set up in The Hague to coordinate the collection of evidence of war crimes.

Senior Ukrainian officials said they expect Russia to launch a new offensive in the coming weeks, possibly involving up to 500,000 troops attacking from two directions in the east and south.

Ukraine is set to receive supplies of weapons from the West, including long-range rockets from the US for the first time, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that strategy would backfire.

“The longer range the weapons supplied to the Kyiv regime, the farther we would need to push them away from the territories that are part of our country,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state media.

He said Moscow would like to see the war end, but noted that the length of the conflict was less important than its desired outcome: to protect Russian territory and “people who want to remain part of the Russian culture.”

With Post wires

• 1. Kramatorsk – Russian rocket strikes Thursday hit residential buildings, a children’s clinic and a school, leaving at least five civilians wounded. The latest attacks came as rescuers were searching through debris after a missile strike destroyed an apartment building in the city overnight, killing at least three people and injuring 21 others.
• 2. Bakhmut – Russian forces are trying to encircle the key city of Bakhmut in the east that has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war over the past months. Moscow’s troops are said to be attacking the bombed-out city from both the north and the south to cut off Ukraine’s supply lines.
• 3. Vuhledar & Pavlivka – The Kremlin’s forces are advancing on the towns of Vuhledar and Pavlivka in the western Donetsk region, but U’’s Ministry of Defense said they are “unlikely” to secure a breakthrough there.
• 4. Kherson – Russian shelling killed two people in Ukraine’s Kherson region overnight, including a 25-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.
• 5. Lyman – Russian troops are said to be trying to gain ground near the strategic logistics hub of Lyman in the east, from which they were pushed out by Kyiv’s forces back in October.