Rescue crews in Sloviansk work through the rubble as death toll rises to 11

Rescue operations continued on Saturday afternoon in Ukraine’s eastern city of Sloviansk following a Russian missile strike on a five-story residential building on Friday that killed at least 11 people, including a toddler, and injured 21 others.

In the wake of Friday’s deadly attack, Ukraine’s air force said the country would soon have weapons that could prevent such attacks, in reference to the long sought-after Patriot air defence which is expected to arrive sometime after Easter, according to Ukrainian air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ihnat.

On Saturday, President Zelenskyy signed decrees introducing two further sanctions lists against around 700 Russian and Belarusian businesses and citizens, including Russian athletes.

Ksenia Shoigu, the youngest daughter of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and president of the Russian Triathlon Federation was named on one of the lists.

“Sanction pressure on all those who are guilty of this aggression, blocking their assets and opportunities at the level of the whole world is the self-defence of the world and today against any other possibilities of aggression,” Zelenskyy said 

Battle for Bakhmut

Meanwhile, assault units of the Wagner private military group have successfully captured two neighbourhoods in the northern and southern suburbs of Bakhmut, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov.

In his daily briefing, Konashenkov also accused retreating Ukrainian troops of “deliberately destroying city infrastructure and residential buildings” in a bid to slow the advance of Moscow’s forces.

The Russian Wagner mercenary group, headed by Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has spearheaded much of the fighting for the city