Russian missile kills 11 persons in Ukraine

DONETSK, Jan 07 (Reuters): A Russian missile strike killed 11 people and injured 10 on Saturday in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region said.
Five of the dead were children. A UN official in Ukraine expressed horror at the incident. Rescue efforts extended into the night. Pictures posted online by regional governor Vadym Filashkin showed teams sifting through piles of smouldering rubble in the dark as well as a burned-out vehicle.
Filashkin told Ukrainian television that Russian forces at about 3 pm engaged in "mass shelling" of Pokrovsk with S-300 missiles. "As a result of this barbaric attack, 11 people died, including five children aged from three to 17 years," he said.
"Ten people were injured. Rescue operations are continuing. Closer to morning we will have a better understanding of the final numbers of those who were injured."
Filashkin had earlier said the main strike had targeted the town of Pokrovsk and nearby villages lying about 80 km (50 miles) from the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk. Russian forces, he said, were "trying to inflict as much grief as possible on our land."
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the attack "quite simply targeted ordinary, private homes. And Russia must be made to feel that none of these strikes will pass without consequences for the terrorist state."
Denise Brown, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said she was "truly horrified" by the strikes and, particularly, the deaths of children. "These were just children who have been killed because of this war," Brown said in a statement.
Putin vows to back soldiers
who 'defend' Russia
President Vladimir Putin vowed on the eve of Orthodox Christmas to back soldiers who "with arms in hands" defend Russia's interests, ordering his government greater support of those who fight and calling on his people to be merciful and just.
"Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, Russian warriors, even now, on this holiday, defend the interests of our country with arms in hand," Putin said at a late Saturday meeting with families of Russian soldiers who have died in Ukraine.
Russia lunched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022, in what Kyiv and its Western allies said was an unprovoked imperialistic land grab.
Nearly two years later, the war, which has killed thousands and displaced millions, has shifted to increased air strikes at each other's territories as both sides have struggled to make significant gains along the frontline.