Ukraine’s Emergency Services say 24 bodies were recovered from the wreckage in Chasiv Yar, in the east of the country, after Russian rockets hit a residential building over the weekend.
Five other bodies were found but not yet recovered, bringing the total death toll in the attack to 29.
Emergency Services said on Telegram that nine survivors had been rescued from the rubble and that work to try to find more people was under way.
Chasiv Yar is one of several cities in Donetsk that have seen an increase in rocket and missile attacks in recent days as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian resistance in the region.
Ukraine prepares major offensive in southern country, says defense minister
Ukraine’s defense minister said the country’s military was assembling a fighting force of “millions of soldiers” to retake land in southern Ukraine that was under Russian occupation.
Oleksii Reznikov, speaking to British newspaper The Times, said the offensive would be reinforced by the use of Western weapons.
“The president has ordered the supreme military chief to draw up plans. After that, the staff is doing its homework and says that to achieve this goal we need XYZ. This is my job. I’m writing letters to colleagues in partner countries, the generals talk about why we need this kind of weaponry and then we make the political decisions,” Reznikov said.
The minister added that President Volodymyr Zelensky had given orders to retake southern coastal areas, crucial for Ukraine’s economy.
Reznikov said Ukraine had a force of one million made up of 700,000 military with the other 300,000 would be formed by the national guard, police and border force.
Weapons delivery: Reznikov said he was pleased that Ukraine’s partners, particularly British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, had helped Ukraine review its depleted ammunition stockpiles.
However, Reznikov added that he would like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its partners to increase the pace of arms deliveries.
“It was a long process, a month and a half, but we got a result. Ukraine had Soviet-era armed forces with thirty-year-old weapons. We changed that in three months. However, we need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Every day that we are waiting for shells, we could lose a hundred soldiers,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
