(CNN) — At least 15 people were killed after a Russian attack hit an apartment block in the Donetsk region in the eastern ukraineUkrainian authorities said on Sunday, adding that many others could still be trapped under the rubble.
The residential building in the town of Chasiv Yar came under attack on Saturday night as Russia once again intensified its assault on cities and towns in eastern Ukraine in a bid to seize control of the entire Donbas area.
The State Emergency Service said that so far the bodies of 15 people have been found in the rubble and that search and rescue efforts continue.
As of 1 pm local time (6 am Miami time), emergency workers rescued five people and made contact with three others who were still buried under the rubble, the service said in a statement.
The emergency service added that 24 people, including a child, “may still be under the rubble.”
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, told Ukrainian television that the area was hit by two or three Russian rockets and that the incident was “another confirmation of the crimes of the Russian Federation, confirmation that they are shelling areas residential”.
Chasiv Yar and other towns in Donetsk have come under heavy fire in recent days as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian resistance in the area and push west toward Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its troops destroyed a hangar with US-supplied M777 howitzers, long-range weapons and dozens of Ukrainian “militants” near Chasiv Yar.
CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims. Ukrainian officials said the attack hit a train station in Chasiv Yar and several people were injured in the attack.
The attack in the Chasiv Yar attack has left several people dead.
Donetsk and Luhansk are the two regions that together make up Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014. The area has become the key centerpiece of the Ukrainian president’s military ambition. Russia Vladimir Putin in Ukraine after his troops failed to take Kyiv earlier this year.
Russian soldiers have already seized almost the entire Luhansk region, the head of the military administration of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said in a Telegram post on Saturday, adding that some 300,000 people from the area have been seen. forced to flee their homes.
Lysychanskthe last city still under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, fell to Russia last week.
Since then, Russian troops have focused on the Donetsk region, shelling wide areas along the front line and advancing from the Luhansk region into the Donetsk region, according to Hayday.
The Ukrainians have been defending this area from Russian attacks for more than a month.
“We tried to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire front line,” Hayday said, adding that “the occupation forces achieved minor successes and continue their offensive west of Lysychansk.”
CNN’s Manveena Suri, Yulia Kesaieva and Josh Pennington contributed reporting.