KOSTIANTYNIVKA, Ukraine — The Russian missile that struck Wednesday in eastern Ukraine turned an outdoor market into a fiery, blackened ruin where weeping civilians looked for loved ones among the mangled, burned bodies scattered across the ground.
The blast in the town of Kostiantynivka killed 17 people and wounded at least 32 in one of Russia‘s deadliest strikes in months, Ukrainian officials said.
“There was no military target here. This is a peaceful neighborhood in the city center,” Stefan Slovak, who lives in Kostiantynivka, said in a trembling voice.
Behind him were the remnants of the market, where charred bodies could be seen in the street, their clothes still burning, near cars engulfed in flames. Behind a market stall holding fresh parsley, rescuers found a women in civilian clothes with her head covered in blood.
Video taken by The Associated Press showed a chaotic scene, with charred bodies lying on the ground, some of them still burning. As firefighters tried to douse the flames, first responders rushed to apply tourniquets and load the wounded into emergency vehicles using stretchers and blankets. Posters or tarps were used to cover some of the dead. Onlookers cried and consoled one another.
“They are shooting at peaceful civilians. Are we soldiers here? Are we shooting at them? No! So why? They are just trying to destroy Ukrainian nation,” said resident Nadezhda Negoda.
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