RAINING DEATH
At least 10 dead including twin sisters, 14, in Putin missile strike on Ukraine restaurant ‘targeting Western reporters’
AT least ten people have been killed including 14-year-old twin sisters after a horror Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Ukraine.
Terrified families were pulled from the wreckage in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine as rescuers continue to search for people trapped under the mountain of debris.
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A restaurant popular with war reporters and a shopping area was hit in Kramatorsk - which is one of the largest cities still under Ukrainian control in the east, only 18 miles from the frontline.
Twin sisters Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, 14, an eight-month-old baby and a 17-year-old girl were among the dead.
In a Telegram post about the tragic death of the twins, the city's council said a "Russian rocket stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels"
And added: "We share the grief of your family and together with you we bow our heads in deep sorrow."
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Three foreigners were also reportedly killed, while at least 61 others were injured and it's feared the death toll could rise.
Eight more have been rescued from the rubble while three more are still believed to be trapped, spokeswoman for the Donetsk region emergency services Veronika Bakhal said.
A witness told Reuters: "I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here...Everything has been blown out there.
"None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century."
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A second missile hit a village on the fringes of Kramatorsk, wounding five while another attack in Kharkiv today has reportedly killed three.
The destroyed RIA Pizza restaurant is used frequently by war reporters, soldiers and volunteers, according to reports.
Financial Times reporter Christopher Miller tweeted that "every correspondent covering the war has probably dined" there.
Two other journalist Colin Freeman and Arnaud de Decker said they were inside the restaurant at around 7pm but left moments before it was blown apart by the missile.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack proved that Russia deserved "only defeat and a tribunal, just and lawful courts against all Russian murderers and terrorists".
The Kremlin hit back at claims it had launched the heinous attack saying Russia only targeted military targets, not civilian ones.
Shocking footage showed one of the wounded - an infant, born last year - covered in blood.
Other civilians were seen racing to the horror to rescue survivors in terrifying footage.
Two S-300 surface-to-air missiles are thought to be responsible for the attack.
Ukrainians could be seen crying outside the decimated building as rescue workers pulled bodies and survivors out of the rubble.
An eyewitness told the he saw "dead people, people screaming, people crying, huge chaos".
Belgian journalist De Decker estimated there were up to 80 staff members and customers in the restaurant when it was hit at 7.30pm local time.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said: "Two missiles struck the city of Kramatorsk.
"This is the city centre. These were public eating places crowded with civilians."
The restaurant is said to be a "gathering hub" popular with soldiers, journalists and volunteers.
Photos appeared to show the restaurant only 20 minutes before the strike - with a table laid with fresh pizza and a beer.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak said on Telegram: ";One missile hit a restaurant in the central part of the city, the second hit a restaurant in the village of Belenkoye."
The missile strike comes only days after Putin admitted Russia was on the brink of civil war during a botched Wagner mutiny.
He blamed Ukraine partially for the staged coup, saying Zelensky and it's "Western patrons" wanted "Russian soldiers to kill each other, to kill military personnel and civilians, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would split, choke in bloody civil strife".
The 70-year-old despot addressed a carefully selected crowd of his generals and soldiers in the Kremlin's sealed-off Cathedral Square in Moscow on Tuesday.
He insisted the rebel mercenaries "never had the support" of the people - despite pictures showing the Wagner troops being met by cheering crowds in Rostov.
"You have stopped a civil war," said Putin.
Vlad was speaking as the war of words continues between the Kremlin and Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin - who attempted to march on Moscow on Saturday.
Russian officials have said Priogzhin is free to go as he faces exile in Belarus, but in a firey statement on Monday night the warlord once again attacked Russia's leadership over the war in Ukraine.
The Sun's defence editor Jerome Starkey shared in March how Russian missiles blitzed a school in Kramatorsk.
The deafening double blast sent a Sun team scrambling for cover as the missiles struck 200 yards from where we were sleeping.
The strike tore the two-storey building to pieces and caused 20m-wide playground craters.
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There was no air raid siren ahead of the attack but soldiers said the building was empty and no one was hurt.
Troops had been using the kitchen to feed legions of reinforcements bolstering nearby Bakhmut’s defence.
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