16 killed in Russian attack on Ukrainian market with Blinken in Kiev
At least sixteen people were killed and 31 wounded Wednesday in a Russian shelling of a market in eastern Ukraine, about 30 kilometres from Bakhmut, the scene of a bloody battle with Moscow's troops for more than a year.
The attack comes at a time when the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, is in Kiev and is expected to announce another billion dollars in aid.
"Russian terrorists' artillery has killed 16 people in the locality of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
Reporting that a market and shops had been hit, he warned that "unfortunately, the number of dead and wounded could rise".
Surveillance footage showed a quiet shopping street, when suddenly there was the hiss of a projectile, followed by a very loud explosion.
The prosecutor's office reported that 31 people were injured. "The rescue operation continues. There are still people under the rubble," the prosecutor's office added on Telegram.
Despite multiple attacks that have hit civilian sites in Ukraine, leaving many dead, Moscow claims it systematically attacks and destroys military targets.
Earlier in the morning, an explosive Russian drone strike had already killed one person in the southern Odessa region, where port infrastructure needed for wheat exports is regularly targeted.
A billion dollars
This very serious toll comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a surprise visit on Wednesday, the fourth to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
During his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kouleba, before the death toll was announced, he reaffirmed US determination to support Kiev in achieving liberation of the occupied territories.
"We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs in the long term (...) and strong deterrents," he said.
According to a senior State Department official, he is expected to announce "new US funding for Ukraine of more than $1 billion", about 930 million euros.
The Kremlin reacted by accusing the US of "keeping Ukraine in a state of war" and asserting that US aid cannot "influence the outcome of the special military operation", a euphemism used in Russia to refer to this invasion.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has been advancing slowly since June, but Kiev hopes to be close to a breakthrough since the seizure of the town of Robotye in late August, which could open the way to the south and Crimea, its peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Russia has never acknowledged ceding the town, and on Wednesday the Russian defence ministry claimed to have repelled four other Ukrainian attacks in the area.
Antony Blinken will also meet President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the counteroffensive and the future reconstruction of the country, one of the poorest in Europe even before the invasion.
During his train trip to Kiev, Blinken also met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who gave a speech to the Ukrainian parliament in the morning.
The American thanked Ms Frederiksen for "Denmark's leadership" in Copenhagen's decision, announced a fortnight ago along with that of the Netherlands, to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.
"Freeing up every centimetre"
In the morning, he visited a cemetery in Kiev to lay a wreath in memory of Ukrainian soldiers killed at the front.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian parliament voted to appoint a Crimean Tatar, Rustem Umerov, to the unprecedented post of defence minister.
"I will do everything possible and impossible for the victory of Ukraine, when we have liberated every inch of our country and every one of our citizens," Oumerov wrote on his Facebook page shortly after his appointment.
The 41-year-old replaces Oleksiï Reznikov, one of the faces of Ukrainian resistance to the Russians, but weakened by corruption scandals within his administration.
His successor has a reputation as a discreet and pragmatic negotiator. He will have the difficult task of negotiating the Western arms deliveries his country needs to force the Russian army to withdraw.