Russian forces goal solely military-linked infrastructure in Ukraine, the Kremlin stated on Wednesday, after a strike on a restaurant within the japanese metropolis of Kramatorsk left a minimum of 10 lifeless.

The feedback got here the morning after the Ria Pizza restaurant — standard with troopers, journalists and help employees — was destroyed within the metropolis, one of many largest nonetheless underneath Ukrainian management within the east.

“Strikes are only carried out on objects that are in one way or another linked to military infrastructure,” stated Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“The Russian Federation does not carry out strikes on civilian infrastructure,” he added.

The Russian defence ministry stated in a separate assertion Wednesday that its forces had struck a “temporary deployment point” of senior command employees of Ukraine’s 56th brigade.

Ukrainian officers have stated the restaurant was primarily crammed with strange folks and that a lot of the victims have been civilians.

The National Police stated the strike, which got here within the night because the eatery was busy, had wounded 61 folks. Emergency providers counted three youngsters among the many lifeless.

They stated a child born in 2022 was amongst these wounded and warned that some folks have been nonetheless underneath the rubble.

The head of Ukraine’s Donetsk area, Pavlo Kyrylenko, confused to AFP Wednesday that the victims have been “mostly” civilians.

“They came to order food. In the evening there was a crowd of people,” he stated.

“If there are wounded military personnel, this information will be provided to the military leadership.”

He accused Russia of attempting to “distort” info on the strike.

An AFP journalist on the scene shortly after the strike noticed the restaurant in ruins surrounded by particles with rescuers dashing to clear rubble and seek for our bodies.

Ukraine additionally stated Wednesday that Russian shelling had killed three civilians within the north-eastern Kharkiv area.

The head of the area, Oleg Synegubov, stated three males — aged 45, 48 and 57 — died in Vovchaski Khutory village near the border with Russia.

Russia has denied hanging civilian infrastructure all through its 16-month lengthy Ukraine marketing campaign.