A DAYTIME attack from Russia on a Ukrainian market has killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more.
Horror footage showed people in Kostiantynivka falling to the ground or running for cover after the huge explosion in the peaceful market.
Video showed the moment the bomb detonated and the chaos which unfolded in moments following.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack, saying a market, shops and a pharmacy had been struck in the industrial city close to the battlefield.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram: "This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible.
"When someone in the world still attempts to deal with anything Russian, it means turning a blind eye to this reality. The audacity of evil. The brazenness of wickedness. Utter inhumanity."
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He later told a press conference in Kyiv that he believed it had been a deliberate attack on "a peaceful city."
Zelenskyy said: "This is one more terrorist attack by the Russian Federation. They deliberately hit the market."
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that in addition to the 16 killed in Kostiantynivka, at least 28 people were wounded.
Blood was seen spattered on the streets and in nearby shops close to the area where the explosive went off.
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Local prosecutors later said 31 are wounded and said 20 shops, power lines, an administrative building and a residential building had been damaged.
Eight retail facilities were burned to the ground and cars were destroyed, they said.
Images circulated on Telegram showed rescue workers sifting through the rubble and carrying out bodies in black bags.
Kostiantynivka, which had a population of about 70,000 before Russia's invasion 18 months ago, is about 19miles from the devastated city of Bakhmut near the frontlines.
It is about 350 miles east of Kyiv, where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders on a visit intended to show support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion.
Wednesday's strike followed a series of Russian attacks on cities in eastern Ukraine in which civilian infrastructure has been hit, including a popular cafe, a hotel and shops.
It also followed air strikes several hours earlier on Wednesday on Kyiv and the southern region of Odessa.
No casualties were reported in the capital but local officials said one person was killed in the Odessa region.
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In July, ten people – including 14-year-old twin sisters – died after a horror Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Ukraine.
Terrified families were pulled from the wreckage in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine as rescuers searched for people trapped under the mountain of debris.
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