31 People Killed In Russian Attacks In Eastern Ukraine, President Zelensky Recognizes Superiority Of Western Artillery

Illustration of a Ukrainian building destroyed by a Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - At least 31 people have died in a Russian attack in eastern Ukraine, keeping rescue teams busy evacuating victims from an apartment block hit by an attack, while President Volodymyr Zelensky has cited Moscow's firepower advantage despite Western help.

The civilian deaths take their toll from the Russian invasion, now in its fifth month, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces seek to seize all of Ukraine's Donbas industrial region after declaring victory in one of its two provinces this month.

In the town of Chasiv Yar, rescue workers made voice contact with two people in the rubble of a five-story building that was demolished on Saturday. Video shows them pulling victims from the rubble, where up to two dozen people are trapped.

But the death toll also continued to rise, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said, as more bodies were pulled from under the crushed concrete. In his evening address, President Zelensky said 31 people had died and nine were rescued from the rubble.

One of the survivors, who gave her name as Venera, said she wanted to save her two kittens.

"I was thrown into the bathroom, everything was a mess, I was in shock, all covered in blood. By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full of debris, three floors collapsed," she said in tears.

"I never found a kitten," he said.

Rescuers were seen lifting one person from the rubble onto a stretcher, and carrying two bodies in white bags.

Meanwhile, military experts say Russia is using attacks like the one at Chasiv Yar in Donetsk province, to pave the way for new attacks on territory by ground forces, after claiming victory in Lugansk Province on July 4. Both have been partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

"(Russia) unfortunately has a huge advantage in artillery," President Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday alongside Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

"With all partners ready to provide support, I'm talking about artillery. It's not enough." he said.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Ukrainian International Legion, a combat unit of foreign forces, said Ukrainian heavy artillery was outnumbered by about eight to one with Russian weapons.

President Zelensky said Russia had carried out 34 air strikes since Saturday. Moscow denies targeting civilians, but many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have fallen into ruins. Since the February 24 invasion, attacks on theaters, shopping malls and train stations have caused many civilian deaths.