Six killed in ‘massive attack’ in east Ukraine as Zelensky hails resistance

Zelensky on Sunday hailed his country’s resistance against what he called ‘the biggest force against humanity of our time’

Sunday’s attack comes a day after Russia took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council despite outrage from Kyiv

2-MIN READ2-MIN

A resident walks by a damaged house after a Russian missile strike in the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:01am, 3 Apr 2023Updated: 6:04am, 3 Apr 2023

A “massive attack” of Russian missiles killed six people on Sunday in residential areas of Kostyantynivka, near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the resistance against what he called “the biggest force against humanity of our time”.

Zelensky was speaking on the first anniversary of the discovery of bodies of civilians killed in Bucha, a town near Kyiv that has become a symbol of the alleged war crimes carried out by Moscow during the invasion.

Russia has accused Ukraine and its allies of staging the atrocities.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Sunday’s macabre anniversary comes a day after Russia took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council despite outrage from Kyiv and Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Moscow.

Fierce clashes continue around Bakhmut, which has been at the epicentre of the fighting for months. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s mercenary force Wagner Group, on Sunday claimed a Russian flag had been raised over the administration of Bakhmut with Ukrainian forces remaining in western parts of the town.

In Kostyantynivka, about 27km (17 miles) from Bakhmut – a city now in ruins – a Russian bombardment left three men and three women dead and eleven wounded, Ukrainian authorities said.

These are “just residential areas”, “ordinary civilians of an ordinary city of Donbas” who were targeted, Zelensky said.