Russia also said it was advancing into the hotspot of Bakhmut, southeast of Sloviansk.
Kyiv:
Russia bombed a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on Friday, killing eight people, including a child who was pulled from the rubble but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital, officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill that would allow citizens to join the military and prevent them from fleeing the country when they are drafted.
Russia also said it was advancing on the hotspot of Bakhmut, 45 kilometers (27 mi) southeast of Sloviansk, one of the towns that would be under threat if Kiev lost the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Sloviansk is located in a part of the Donetsk region that is under the control of Ukraine.
“21 people were injured and eight people died,” the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, said on Ukrainian television.
He said that the child who died was a boy.
AFP reporters saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of the Soviet-era housing block, and black smoke billowing from houses from fires across the street.
“A child died in an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble,” Ukrainian police said on Twitter.
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska expressed her condolences to the child’s family during this “indescribable grief”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier condemned Russia for “brutally shelling” residential buildings and “killing people in broad daylight”.
The street below – including a playground – was covered in concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from school books and children’s drawings.
– Surprised residents –
“I live on the opposite side of the road and I was sleeping for a while when I heard this huge boom and I ran out of my flat,” Larissa, 59, told AFP.
“I was really scared and in a state of shock,” she said, adding that the impact of the gunfire shattered her windows and sent shards of glass flying throughout her house.
“I heard a woman screaming, ‘There’s a baby, here’s a baby’ — she was screaming a lot.”
A nearby resident, who declined to give his name, told AFP the attacks blew out his windows and stripped his front door of its frame.
“No one was injured on our side of the building, but maybe someone was here,” he said, pointing to a pool of blood next to another entrance to his building.
– Russian pressure to take over Bakhmut –
More than a year after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, fears are high in Russia that the government is planning a new mobilization campaign after a bill was pushed through parliament this week to create a digital draft system. Is.
Under the law, which Putin signed on Friday, draftees will be banned from traveling abroad and must report to an enlistment office after receiving electronic call-up papers.
Tens of thousands of men fled Russia last autumn after Putin announced a mobilization to support the army in Ukraine.
Striking Sloviansk, where many residents have fled since Russia’s invasion, Moscow said it was pushing to take over more districts of devastated Bakhmut.
Despite having little strategic value, the city became a fixture of military commanders, which led to nine months of brutal fighting.
“The Wagner assault units are conducting high-intensity combat operations to conquer the western districts of the city,” the Russian military said in a statement, referring to the private paramilitary group.
The Russian Air Force was “providing support to the assault squads and preventing enemy attempts to deliver ammunition and supplies to the city”, it added.
On Thursday Moscow claimed it had cut off Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut. Kiev denied the claim, saying that it had access to its troops and was able to send ammunition.
Ukraine has pledged to continue defending Bakhmut. But on the ground, Ukrainian sources near Bakhmut told AFP on Friday that Kiev’s forces were in a “difficult” position.
An army source said, “I know that many of our soldiers are missing, that the position was lost and that it was impossible to evacuate or withdraw troops,” adding that Ukraine was still “bringing in new ones” in Bakhmut.
Separately, an intelligence source said that any pullout from Bakhmut would be slow and gradual, as only a narrow escape route was left.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)