KYIV: A Russian strike killed at least 17 people at a market in east Ukraine Wednesday, officials said, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as deliberate and “heinous”.

Projectiles tore through the centre of Kostiantynivka — a town of nearly 70,000 people in the Donetsk region — hours after America’s top diplomat arrived in Kyiv to announce new wartime aid.

Ukraine’s newly appointed defence minister meanwhile vowed to liberate “every centimetre” of territory occupied by Russia in his first comments in the post.

Rescue workers picked through the debris and carried some of the wounded for treatment past charred vehicles and kiosks torn to pieces in the blast, according to images distributed by officials.

Kremlin accuses Washington of ’ keeping Ukraine in a state of war’

“Seventeen people were killed and 32 injured as a result of the Russian shelling,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, announcing the rescue operation had ended.

Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said a child was among those killed in the attack, which took place about 20 kilometres from the front line.

“Anyone in the world who is still dealing with anything Russian simply ignores this reality,” said Zelensky.

“Heinous evil. Brazen wickedness. Utter inhumanity.” He later accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians and said there were no military units “anywhere near” the scene.

The attack came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine, with Washington set to unveil more than $1 billion in fresh aid to battle Russia.

‘Good progress’

During a meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Blinken reiterated Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to liberate territory in the south and east.

“We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, not only to succeed in the counteroffensive, but has what it needs for the long term, to make sure that it has a strong deterrent,” he told Kuleba.

Blinken is expected to announce “more than a billion dollars in new US funding for Ukraine”, said a senior State Department official.

The Kremlin dismissed Blinken’s Kyiv visit, arguing US aid would not “influence the course of the special military operation” — Moscow’s term for its offensive.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of wanting to “keep Ukraine in a state of war, to wage this war till the last Ukrainian”.

Kyiv’s army has said it is pressing on with “offensive operations” towards eastern Ukraine’s war-battered town of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in May, and the southern Moscow-occupied city of Melitopol.

The US has supplied key weaponry to Ukraine that allowed it to launch its counteroffensive this summer and Blinken told Kuleba that “we’ve seen some good progress”.

But Ukraine has in recent weeks become increasingly frustrated with criticism that the counteroffensive has been too slow.

Russia said on Wednesday it had “improved its tactical position” near the north-western city of Kupiansk, where it has led a local offensive for weeks.

It also hit Ukraine’s south-western Odesa region, near the border with Romania, with drone attacks overnight, killing one person.

In what was hailed as a historic move, Ukrainian lawmakers approved the nomination of Crimean Tatar Rustem Umerov as Kyiv’s new wartime defence minister on Wednesday.

Crimean Tatars are an ethnic minority hailing from the Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“I will do everything possible and impossible for the victory of Ukraine — when we liberate every centimetre of our country and every one of our people,” he said in a post on social media.

The 41-year-old businessman has been involved in prisoner exchange negotiations involving Saudi Arabia and grain export talks with Turkiye and the United Nations.

“Children, prisoners of war, political prisoners, civilians… are waiting for us,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023