Russian strike on Ukraine’s Sloviansk residential area kills 8; Moscow puts naval forces on high alert

Russian shelling on a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk killed eight people, including a toddler, on Friday. The strike on the quiet Ukraine neighbourhood came as Russia put its naval fleet on high alert during a surprise inspection of its Pacific naval fleet.

In an address on Ukrainian television, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said, "21 people were wounded and eight people died." As per AFP, among the dead was a toddler, a boy, who was pulled from under the rubble but died while being transported to the hospital.

Russia,as per Reuters, will be conducting missile launches and torpedo tests as part of the surprise inspection of its Pacific naval fleet.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigusaid on state television,"The main objective of this inspection is to increase the ability of the Armed Forces to repel the aggression of a probable enemy from the direction of ocean and sea."

As per Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, as part of the drills, Russia's naval forces would be deployed to training areas, where they will conduct combat exercises. The drills will involve simulating a foreign force landing on both Sakhalin, a Russian island, and the Kuril Islands in the south.The Kuril Islands have been the source of a long-running territorial dispute between Russia and Japan since the conclusion of World War Two.

Kremlin, however, downplayed any connection with the regional tensions and its spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, "This is a common practice, it has been constantly carried out in recent years and it continues. This is about maintaining the necessary level of combat readiness of our armed forces."

(With inputs from agencies)

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