At least eight people were killed and 42 were wounded when a Russian Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rocket hit a crowd that was collecting water from a tanker, Serhii Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said on Monday.
“Today in Lysychansk, when the civilian population was collecting water from a tanker, the Russians aimed at a crowd of people with MLRS ‘Hurricane,'” Hayday said. “Eight Lysychansk residents died, 21 people were taken to hospital, and five of them remained in Lysychansk after receiving medical treatment. Sixteen citizens were evacuated to hospitals in other regions.”
CNN was unable to independently verify Hayday’s claims and the Russian government didn’t immediately comment on the incident. Russia has continuously denied targeting civilians despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The alleged attack happens as Russian forces in the region concentrate their efforts on trying to take Lysychansk, the last remaining city in the Luhansk oblast still under Ukrainian control.
“In addition to storming the city from different sides, they are also destroying it with artillery, aircraft and constant shelling,” Hayday also said on Monday.
Hayday went on to explain that the humanitarian situation was dire, with “many wounded and dead already.”
“We have not been able to bring humanitarian kits for two days in a row because the road along which we were doing this was very heavily shelled,” he said. “We managed to bring the medicines that the doctors asked for [in advance], including anesthesia, to the hospitals because we understood that there would be more and more.”
The head of the Luhansk region military administration also said that Ukrainian forces are putting up fierce resistance in the area, but he added that they are outmanned and outgunned.
“The problem of the Ukrainian military is the same. The Russians have many times more artillery and many times more shells for them. There is an impression that there is an unlimited number of shells,” Hayday explained. “They have creeping, scorched earth tactics, they just destroy everything in their path. After several hours of shelling, assault attempts are being made, and they are beaten off. Again, several hours of shelling again attempt to storm — and so repeatedly.”
“The city is quite complicated, and now a large number of our defenders are just holding the defense, but many times more Russians have been thrown to storm Lysychansk,” he said.
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