At least 15 people have been killed in a Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine

A Russian missile struck an apartment building in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least 15 people as Moscow forces tried to tighten control of the Donbass region.

“During the rescue operation, 15 bodies were found at the scene and five people were pulled out of the rubble,” the local branch of Ukraine’s emergency medical service in the city of Chasiv Yar said on Facebook.

“At least 30 others lie under the rubble” of the four-story building after it was hit by a Russian Uragan missile, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko previously said on Telegram.

The building was partially destroyed in the strike, AFP correspondents saw at the scene, where rescuers used a mechanical excavator to sift through the rubble.

Rescue workers have so far managed to make contact with three people under the rubble, emergency services said.

After fighting long battles to capture the last areas of the neighboring Luhansk region, Russian troops are now turning their focus to Donetsk to take control of the entire Donbass region.

“I was in the bedroom, I came out and everything started shaking, collapsing,” a resident of Chasiv Yar, who declined to be named, told AFP.

“What saved me was the force of the explosion, which threw me, covered in blood, into the bathroom. I barely got out,” she said.

The Donetsk region is under constant shelling while Russian ground attacks are all but halted, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Army said on Sunday.

On Saturday, three people were killed and another 23 injured in a shelling in Donetsk, Governor Kyrylenko said.

Strikes were also reported in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in northeastern Ukraine, where a “teaching facility” and a house were hit and one injured, according to regional governor Oleg Sinegubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the widespread Russian bombings in a speech on Saturday evening.

“In just one day, Russia hit Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rig, the communities of the Zaporizhia region,” said Zelenskyy.

Russian attacks “absolutely premeditated” and “deliberately” targeted the residential sector, hitting “ordinary houses, civilian objects, people,” he said.

“Terrorist actions like this can really only be stopped with modern and powerful weapons,” added Zelenskyy, thanking the United States for its recent military aid package.

As a boost to Kyiv, Washington has signed a $400 million package that includes four additional high-mobility artillery missile systems to the eight already in place and high-precision artillery munitions not previously sent to Ukraine.

“This is a further development of our support for Ukraine in this battle in Donbass,” a senior defense official was quoted as saying by the US Department of Defense.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s restrictions on Ukrainian grain exports may have contributed to turmoil in Sri Lanka sparked by severe food and fuel shortages.

“We are seeing the effects of this Russian aggression everywhere,” Blinken told reporters in Bangkok.

Blinken renewed a demand he had repeatedly made, urging Russia to let an estimated 20 million tons of grain leave Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in February.

Canada pledged on Saturday to deliver turbines to Germany that are needed for maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite sanctions against Russia.

Ukraine had asked Canada not to return the turbines currently being serviced at a Canadian site owned by German industrial giant Siemens.

Gazprom reduced deliveries via the pipeline, attributing this to the late return of components and fueling fears of a gas shortage in Germany.

Canada would “grant Siemens Canada a temporary and revocable permit to allow the return of repaired Nord Stream 1 turbines,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said.

The Canadian minister also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of wanting to “sow division” among Western allies by squeezing supplies.

In addition, Canada announced on Saturday that it would extend its economic sanctions against Russia to include industrial manufacturing.

“These new sanctions apply to land and pipeline transportation and the manufacture of metals, as well as transportation equipment, computers, electronic and electrical equipment and machinery,” Secretary of State Melanie Joly said in a statement.