Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issues an appeal for Israeli military assistance. Photo: Screenshot

i24 News – The death toll from Russian missile strikes on eastern Ukraine’s city of Sloviansk rose to 11 Saturday as rescue crews tried to reach people trapped in the rubble of an apartment building, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike on Sloviansk “another terrorist attack.”

“Rescue operations are currently ongoing in Sloviansk, Donetsk region. Another terrorist attack. S-300 missiles hit residential areas, regular civilian buildings,” Zelensky said in his evening video address. “There are people under the rubble. Everything is being done to save them, everything is being done to save the wounded. We have the first data about the dead. My condolences to those who have lost their loved ones.”

Sloviansk and the nearby city of Kramatorsk are both coveted by Russian forces, currently bogged down in nearby Bakhmut, as they push ahead with their invasion of Ukraine.

Russia on Saturday claimed advances on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut, the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of Moscow’s military campaign.

Russian troops have been battling since last summer to capture the town in eastern Ukraine, which has taken on huge symbolic importance even though analysts say it has little strategic value. Both Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered huge losses in the battle.