Ukrainian city hit with Russian ‘double-tap’ missile strike

 Well.

Rescuers in

Ukraine's eastern Donetsk

region are still looking for survivors

after a pair of Russian missile strikes.

Now, these happened

Monday night in punk rock, killing

at least seven people

and wounding more than 80.

One of those dead, a first responder

Ukrainian officials

accused Russia of so-called

double tap

strikes, launching a second

attack to hit

rescue teams

who go to the scene of the first attack.

Clare Sebastian is here in London.

Clare,

what are the details, as we understand?

Yeah, Becky,

we understand that at least seven

people were killed.

The injury toll now up

to 80, one of which almost half made up

by police and rescuers.

So that gives you a sense

of what happened here

because is a town in the Donetsk

region, in the part of that region

that Ukraine still occupies,

although Russia,

of course, has claimed to annex

that entire region.

So no stranger to fighting

this is a region

that is seen fighting since 2014.

But this attack that happened at dusk

in the evening

people having dinner

and people in their apartments

still came as a shock. Take a look

Even for a town that

spent most of the last decade

on the edge of conflict.

These are startling images daylight

revealing a

wide area of destruction

in just as rescue efforts resumed.

The head of the town

some 30 miles from the eastern

front says two Iskander

ballistic missiles

struck 37 minutes apart Monday evening.

This is a standard Rousseau

fascist scenario

30 to 40 minutes between missiles

and the state

emergency service and rescuers

arrived to save people.

The second missile hit

and so the number of victims increases.

Here is the moment of that

second hit captured on a paramedic's

body camera

ha ha ha ha.

Is it

not surprising

then that dozens of police officers

and rescuers

were among

the injured as well as children?

The deputy head of the state

emergency service in the Donetsk

region killed yesterday.

What's more, it is eight 30 years.

Look, having witnessed the first strike,

this 75 year old woman

fell victim to the second

in her own apartment.

There was the first impact.

We were not hit or was okay here

I was talking on the phone sitting

and then suddenly this flew out

and it fell around me.

Then the window fell on me.

My back has cuts.

A hotel now closed.

An Italian restaurant

once frequented by foreign journalists

also hit.

Russia has denied targeting

civilian areas, saying Tuesday

it has a Ukrainian military

command post Kursk.

But nearly 18 months into this war.

Attacks like this are commonplace.

And Ukraine

says Russia is not letting up

on the front lines either.

Footage released this weekend showing

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu

apparently visiting rare positions

inside Ukraine,

capping a week

in which Ukraine says Russia fired

almost half a million

munitions in the east

This as Western officials tell CNN,

two months in briefings

on the state of Ukraine's

counter offensive

are growing

more and more pessimistic

as Ukrainian troops still face layers

of Russian defenses in the south

with mounting casualties.

One chink of light.

The first batch of U.S.

Abrams battle tanks

is now ready for shipment

and set to arrive by early fall, likely

not soon enough

to turn the tide

in the counter-offensive.

But a boost for Ukrainian morale

again under attack

You know, Becky, these

attacks on civilian areas,

even though Russia consistently denies

them, has become

a hallmark of this conflict with so very

The end of July, Kramatorsk

at the end of June.

The randomness of this designed to

to sort of

keep the psychological pressure

on Ukrainians to test their resolve

even as Russia is struggling

to break through their defenses

in some regions.

And just one more thing.

Rescuers also have

been in the firing line

throughout this conflict.

We had a new number today

from a spokesman for the state

emergency services that.

78 rescuers have been killed.

280 injured, they say,

since the start

of the full scale invasion.

Clare, just a little more,

if you will, on these

concerns about this

Ukrainian counter-offensive.

New CNN reporting

revealing Ukraine's allies

getting on quote here, sobering updates

from the battle ground

to be a little bit more specific.

Yeah, this

is reporting

that CNN has that Western and U.S.

officials saying

that frankly,

they're getting a bit

of a dose of reality,

that the two months

or so in to this counter offensive,

we're really not seeing much movement.

The fact that Russia had the time

to build up its defenses,

especially we see in

the south, has meant

that Ukraine has faced

mounting casualties there

now in some areas,

having to pull back units

in order to minimize those casualties.

In many ways, this wasn't unexpected.

President Zelensky has been saying, look,

we were waiting.

We wanted to start the counteroffensive

in the spring.

We had to wait for more weapons,

for more ammunition

until around early June

when we felt comfortable enough

to start it.

But there are some questions around

that as well,

whether enough training

was given to the brigades

who are operating

some of the Western weapons

systems that balance an act

that we've been talking about,

whether to go quicker

or to wait for more training.

Some of that is coming into play now.

But I suppose one

small silver lining for the Ukrainians

is that at least

this managed

is the expectations

and they are still getting.

We saw with the Abrams tanks,

they're still getting

these Western weapons through. Yeah.

And CNN chief

national security correspondent

Jim Sciutto

has been speaking

with many of those US officials.

And we'll be live with Jim next hour.

Thank you.

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