At least 23 people are killed in a Russian rocket attack in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. The US is now rejecting Moscow's claim that the Russian army hit a military target. Rather, apartments are said to have been destroyed.
The US has dismissed Russian claims that the rocket attack in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia hit a military target. "I have no indication that a military target was anywhere near there," said a senior US Department of Defense official, who asked to remain anonymous. Rather, the hit object looks "like a building with apartments".
The Russian missiles hit downtown Vinnytsia on Thursday, hundreds of kilometers from the frontline of the war. According to Ukrainian sources, at least 23 people were killed, including three children. More than hundreds of other people were injured.
However, Russia denied attacking civilians in Vinnytsia. Rather, a meeting of high-ranking Ukrainian army commanders "with representatives of foreign arms suppliers" was shot at, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow. "The participants of the meeting were eliminated."
On the other hand, the Ukrainian army had announced that three Russian rockets had hit a building with offices and small shops and an adjacent parking lot in Vinnytsia. Pictures circulated by local rescue workers showed a 12-story building badly damaged. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the shelling of Vinnytsia an "open act of terrorism". UN Secretary-General António Guterres and representatives of the West also reacted with horror.
The federal government in Berlin demanded that Moscow stop attacks on civilian facilities immediately. The shelling of Vinnytsia was an "act of cruelty," said Deputy Government Spokesman Wolfgang Büchner. This attack shows "once again that Russia is massively violating the rules of international law in this war."
