Russian attack kills eight, including toddler, in eastern Ukraine

AL Jazeera:

At least eight people, including a toddler, have been killed in a Russian missile attack on a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, police and the governor said.

The attack on the quiet neighbourhood on Friday came as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that will make it easier to mobilise citizens into the army, and block them from fleeing the country if drafted.

The governor of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that seven Russian S-300 missiles had been fired at Sloviansk, west of the city Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest fighting on the Ukrainian front line.

“As of now, casualties at all sites – 21 people were injured and eight people have died,” Kyrylenko said on national television.

Kyrylenko said there were “no fewer than seven spots hit” in Sloviansk, west of the city Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest fighting on the Ukrainian front line.

Ukrainian police said on Twitter that a child died in an ambulance after being pulled out from the rubble.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said the child was a two-year-old boy and sent her condolences to the family during this “indescribable grief”.

“The evil state once again demonstrates its essence,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post accompanied by footage of a damaged building.