| February 2024 Lysychansk missile strike | |
|---|---|
| Location | Lysychansk, Ukraine |
| Date | 3 February 2024 |
Attack type | Airstrike |
| Deaths | 28+ (claimed by Russia) |
| Perpetrators |  Ukraine (claimed by Russia) |
On 3 February 2024, a Ukrainian missile struck a cafe in the Russian occupied city of Lysychansk as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian sources claimed 28 civilians, including three high-ranking collaborators, were killed in the cafe, while Ukraine has not yet commented on the attack. [1]
Lysychansk was the site of a pitched battle in June 2022 which, after over a week, saw the city captured by elements of the Russian Armed Forces and the Luhansk people's militia, and a collaborationist government was established and placed under the control of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), a separatist puppet state that claims control over all of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast.
Russian state media had difficulty identifying the store which was targeted, first calling it a bakery, and then a restaurant, before the location was identified as the Adriatica café by milblogers. [2] Eduard Sakhnenko, the Russian-installed mayor of Lysychansk reported that the attack was a missile strike and that there where at least 28 civilian casualties, three of which where local politicians including a member of the LPR's executive branch. [3]
The missile strike targeted the Adriatica café during the birthday celebrations of Ivan Zhushma, a local collaborator and a member of the legislature of the LPR. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti stated that the attack killed several high-ranking LPR officials including: [1]
Luhansk Oblast, also referred to as Luhanshchyna (Луганщина), is the easternmost oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the name Voroshilovgrad Oblast until 1958 and again from 1970 to 1991. It has a population of 2,102,921.
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