CNN is
on the ground near the eastern
Ukrainian city
of Kramatorsk
where city officials say
the Russians are again
targeting civilians with missile
strikes on the city
Joining me live from Pokrovsk
is which is close to the front lines
there, as CNN senior
international correspondent
Frederik Pleitgen.
So, Fred,
I know you were in Kramatorsk
earlier today.
Quite close to some of these att
Two attacks, right?
One overnight
and as we mentioned,
one happening as rescue workers
were coming into that apartment
Yeah, that's that's absolutely c
There was a first attack
that happened overnight in Krama
and hit a residential building.
The Ukrainians are saying that i
by a Iskander
missile, which is a pretty heavy
to surface missile with a big wa
A building was pretty much flatt
by that strike.
The Ukrainians are saying
that three people were killed.
One person was still missing.
So at that site,
there was an active search
and rescue operation going on.
There was a big search
and rescue operation
A lot of cranes being in use.
More than 100 police officers al
were at the scene now.
We went to Kramatorsk earlier to
to film some of what was going o
Some of that search and rescue o
as we arrived in Kramatorsk
at the site of that first blast
as we parked our cars and got ou
There was a second missile attac
targeting the building
that we had just parked in front
So I would say that the first mi
about 40 or 50 yards away
from where we were. It was a gia
You could also tell
it was a very big missile.
Obviously,
a lot of people
then went running for cover.
We also tried to make our way
to safety, to a hardened locatio
And as we were going there,
I turned around and looked up
and I saw a second missile
hit the exact same building once
Now, the Ukrainians are saying
that there were further
people who were wounded in that
They say that this time
it was an S or two
S-300 missiles
that struck in that second strik
Those are normally used to shoot
airplanes be on.
And if they're used
against ground targets,
they're very inaccurate.
And of course,
if they're used against ground
targets in densely
populated urban centers,
it makes things all the more dan
However, the bottom
line of the whole thing
was that
there was a place
where there was an active
search and rescue operation,
and that place was targeted in a
populated area
once again today
by the Russian military Brianna.
I mean,
it has the hallmarks of a yet
another war crime
committed by Russians, Fred.
And this is coming as EU
officials are in Kiev today
and Ukrainians continue
with their two main asks.
One is at fast track membership
to join the EU,
and the other is for more advanc
long range weaponry,
attack arms and obviously F-16s.
Any indication
that either one of those asks
will be granted any time soon?
Yeah,
I think right now Western govern
as far as those fighter
jets are concerned,
they're really saying that at th
that's not something that's in t
That doesn't necessarily
mean that down the line.
It's not something
that could possibly happen.
But I think right now
can be very difficult to do that
One of the things, of course,
that Ukrainians
would really want
is those longer range missiles.
That's something, you know,
I've spoken to so many
Ukrainian officials
over the past couple of weeks
that we've been here in the coun
and all of them say
longer distance
weapons are absolutely necessary
They need them.
They say to stop some of those R
logistics lines that have been u
that have been put further away
from the front line by the Russi
to avoid some of the multiple ro
launching systems that the Ukrai
have but also, for instance,
to prevent the Russians
from conducting strikes
like the ones that we saw today,
which happened from a further di
Those missiles can travel
a pretty far distance.
And the
Ukrainian say
they need something to be able
to stop that from happening.
Now, currently, that's not the c
The missiles that the Russians u
are almost impossible to interce
So the Ukrainians are saying
we need to hit those things
before they can actually take of
In order to do that,
they need longer range missiles.
So that is definitely very high
on what
the Ukraine
on the agenda
of what
the Ukrainians want
and they hope that they get it
from the US and possibly from th
allies as well, Brianna.
Yeah, and all
this is happening
as Russia is planning
for a new front, right?
Any time soon in a new offensive
Ukraine planning for a counter o
there as well.
Fred Pleitgen on the ground,
thank you so much. Stay safe.