Lying under rubble

Russian minister killed in shelling

On Saturday, a bakery in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, which is said to have worked for the front line, was attacked.(Bild: AFP)

A minister of the Russian occupation authorities has been killed in the shelling of a bakery in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk. His body was found in the collapsed building, the Russian head of government of the region announced.

"A comrade and friend from the battle, who went through the forging fire of the battles in the 2014 summer campaign, has been killed," Sergei Kozlov wrote on Monday. Alexei Poteleshchenko, who was killed, had held the post of minister in Luhansk since the fall of 2023. Before that, he headed the fire department in the region.

28 dead, including one child
According to Russian reports, a total of 28 people were killed in the attack on Saturday, including a child (see video above). "The ongoing strikes against civilian infrastructure, in this case against a bakery, are a terrible terrorist attack," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had previously claimed that Kiev had fired on the bakery in the knowledge that there were many civilians there at the time.

The emergency services searching for those trapped(Bild: AFP)

The destroyed building(Bild: AFP)

Work for the front?
The Ukrainian military has not yet commented on the attack. However, the Ukrainian city administration has confirmed it. The bakery was not a civilian target, but was working for the needs of the front. Lysychansk is only around ten kilometers from the front line. The city was conquered by Russian troops in the summer of 2022 after heavy fighting, and the population fell to less than a tenth at times.