The Russians claimed they were targeting a meeting of Ukrainian commanders and NATO “instructors” there, and that high-ranking NATO officers were killed.
According to this, “The soldier, who asked to be identified only by the call sign Alex, said there had been a banquet for 45 people at one of the restaurants when the strike occurred, and that it hit “right in the center of the cafe.”
Link:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/27/europe/kramatorsk-strike-ukraine-war-intl/index.html
Now, I’m not necessarily buying the Russian version, but the banquet sounds like there may well have been some important military commanders (perhaps including advisors from NATO countries) there at the time.
Add to this the Ukrainians arrested a local man they allege is a spy for tipping off the Russians:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66045197
Put two and two together and ...
Yes, civilians were killed. It is horrible. War is horrible.
If you listen to the video posted earlier by CapandBall at #9 (or read the captions) you can hear the South African merc saying “there are soldiers under this rubble, all over.” It’s the first video on this Tweet:
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1674023498904215555
We bombed hospitals, apartment buildings, etc. in Serbia in 1999. Some were oopsies. Our bombs and missiles killed civilians in other wars, too, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. Sadly, civilians get killed in wars.
This is a nasty war. Ukrainians have been shelling residential areas in the LDNR killing women and children since 2014 — about 14,000 killed inside the LDNR, around 10,000 of them civilians. The LDNR forces also shelled residential areas.
I am in no way justifying this strike or this war. Just adding perspective.
Oh sure. You are just "adding perspective", but then you repeat the old Russian propaganda lie about Ukrainians shelling residential areas and killing 14,000 "women and children".
That's an utter lie, and it has been debunked multiple times.
Do you get an extra serving of borscht for working late?
Duckworth contradicts the Russian story, he says there were few military people at the restaurant:
An American volunteer in Ukraine said he was at a Kramatorsk restaurant when it was hit by a Russian missile on Tuesday evening. Nick Duckworth, 28, from Sonora, California, said he arrived at the Ria Lounge restaurant with colleagues around 20 minutes before the missile attack, which took place just after 7.30 p.m. local time. “I can remember trying to tell my team to get down but failing before it hit,” Duckworth said in messages exchanged with CNN.“Once they moved, I ran to help a translator for a journalist team who had severe injuries. Once a more qualified medical professional reached her and our team’s paramedic arrived on scene, I ran into the restaurant to start assessing where help was needed most – which included trying to reach a girl pinned by the roof and a pillar. As well as starting to help move debris where others were pinned but in more stable conditions,” he continued. Duckworth said there was a children’s party at the restaurant. “There was a kids' party, a lot of other humanitarian workers, and journalists. Very few actual military personnel were in the area in comparison to the mass amount of civilians.”
His group had almost ended up sitting inside the restaurant, where the full impact of the strike was felt, except a server managed to find them a table outside at the last minute. He said this likely saved his life.
“The only table open inside would have been buried under the rubble,” Duckworth said.
He and his colleagues, including British volunteer Mo Hornik, escaped with only minor injuries and posted pictures on Facebook from the scene and inside the hospital.
Duckworth said he had been in Ukraine for around 14 months working for a humanitarian charity delivering aid to civilians in frontline villages. He has posted frequently on Facebook about delivering medical supplies and other provisions to frontline areas in eastern Ukraine.
“We are only more united and motivated to continue our work through this act of terror,” Duckworth wrote in a post on Facebook.
You will just have to accept that you are supporting the bombing of children's parties and civilians. Trying to lie about what happened doesn't bring back the dead kids.