Russian spy accused of carrying out deadly attack in Kramatorsk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said treason charges will be brought against a suspected Russian agent involved in the attack on the city of Kramatorsk.

He advocated for the “maximum penalty” for those who aid Russia in killing innocent people.

On Tuesday, a rocket struck a busy restaurant, killing eleven people, including three teenagers.

Ukrainian security officials have claimed that the individual had filmed the restaurant and submitted the material to the Russian military hours before it was bombed.

The victims included a 17-year-old female and the twins Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, both 14 years old.

Russian missiles “stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels,” according to the education department of the Kramatorsk city council.

There were at least 60 people hurt, including a prominent Ukrainian author and a Colombian person.

Ukrainian authorities posted a photo of a local man they seized on Wednesday, labeling him a Russian agent.

Mr. Zelensky, in his evening speech, announced that the suspect, who faces the possibility of life in prison, had been apprehended with the help of the country’s security services and police special forces.

On Wednesday, rescue workers reported that their operations were still ongoing.

Kramatorsk, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, is adjacent to territory that is now held by Russia.

More than fifty people were murdered and dozens more were injured when a missile hit the city’s train station in April of last year.

The Ria lounge, which was attacked this time, was a popular hangout for weary Ukrainian military, international media, and humanitarian workers.

Former Colombian peace negotiator Sergio Jaramillo Caro was sitting in the restaurant on Tuesday night when it was attacked, but he only received minor injuries, he told the BBC.

In the seconds after the explosion, Mr. Jaramillo Caro says he saw “particles moving in slow motion” as he sought to make sense of what had happened.

In critical condition and “fighting for her life” is a prominent Ukrainian author who was dining with them but whose identity is being withheld.

Mr. Jaramillo Caro pleaded, “Please pray for her.”

As reported by Reuters, Colombian President Gustavo Petro strongly criticized Russia for its attack on “defenceless” Colombians. Mr. Petro then ordered his foreign ministry to issue a protest note in a diplomatic capacity.

Valentyna, who lives in Kramatorsk and runs a cafe close to the bombing site, described the devastation. She told the Reuters news agency, “No glass, windows, or doors are left; everything has been blown out there.”

Russia’s defense ministry stated, without providing details, that it had destroyed a “temporary deployment of [Ukrainian] commanders” in Kramatorsk, despite the Kremlin’s repeated insistence that it only attacks military targets.

Air defenses in Ukraine are “insufficient to cover the full territory of Ukraine,” Yuri Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry, told the BBC.

Ukraine’s requests for advanced fighter jets from its partners to protect against Russian aggression continue.

The United States pledged support for the war-torn Ukraine last month, saying it would allow Western allies to deliver American-made F16s and train Ukrainian pilots to use the jets.