But on Tuesday at about 7:30 p.m. — peak dinner hour — an Iskander ballistic missile slammed through Ria’s roof, turning the restaurant into a mangled twist of metal frames, white canvas, and collapsed cement walls. At least 11 people were killed, including three children, authorities said, and at least 61 others were injured, including an 8-month-old baby.
On Wednesday, rescue workers were still combing through the rubble in search of additional victims and, with some of the injured hospitalized in critical condition, officials said the death toll was almost certain to rise.
A small crowd of people — mainly relatives and friends of the restaurant’s employees — sat waiting anxiously across the street from the restaurant for news of their loved ones. One of the restaurant’s pristine, white sofas was splattered with blood. Trauma psychologists tried to console one woman who was particularly distraught.
Tetiana, whose 18-year-old granddaughter, Katya, worked as a cook in the restaurant alongside her boyfriend and parents, said that the young woman had not been heard from since the attack, even as the others escaped. The whole family now stood there, faces creased with worry, waiting for news. The Washington Post agreed not to identify the family to protect their privacy.
“She’s such a beautiful girl. Such big eyes and lovely brown hair,” said Tetiana, weeping. “May God keep her alive, she’s so smart and so good.”
According to the police, the dead included one 17-year-old and two 14-year-old sisters. Local media identified two sisters as Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, who had just finished eighth grade at a local school in Kramatorsk.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied that Moscow had targeted civilian infrastructure. “Russia only strikes targets related to military infrastructure,” said Peskov in a daily call with journalists on Wednesday. But his statement was flatly contradicted by the gruesome scenes at Ria, where workers and civilians were the primary victims.
“That was just a restaurant full of people,” Wojciech Grzedzinski, a news photographer who was inside the restaurant when the missile struck, wrote on Instagram. Grzedzinski, who often works with The Washington Post, was on assignment for Andalou, the Turkish news agency, at the time. He was not injured.
“I was extremely lucky and unlucky at the same time,” he wrote “It was approx. 7:30 p.m. when suddenly the ceiling collapsed. It was just like in the movies, loud and quiet at the same time … the ceiling stopped like half a meter above my head. There are lot of people that haven’t been so lucky.”
For journalists, including a Washington Post reporting team that ate lunch and spent most of Sunday afternoon there, Ria also offered a stable WiFi connection — a rarity in wartime Kramatorsk these days.
On Sunday, we decided to spend the day in Ria to file a recent frontline article we had just completed, ordering rounds of flat whites, sushi, Hawaiian pizza, and salads.
On most nights last week, we had convened at Ria for dinner, grateful to eat a big, tasty meal after long hours out in the field.
On Sunday, like most days, the restaurant was filled with soldiers chatting and smoking hookah. But it was also filled with just as many civilians: one woman dressed head-to-toe in a zebra print playsuit; a gaggle of teenage girls, one sporting furry, hot pink sandals. As we worked, one or two explosions went off in the background — briefly jolting our focus and reminding that this was not just a typical restaurant.
“Could this ever be a target for the Russians?” one of us wondered aloud, remembering last year’s attack on a busy shopping mall in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine. Even after 16 months of war and relentless, horrific attacks on residential buildings and infrastructure, a direct hit on a restaurant still defies comprehension
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not refer directly to the attack on the restaurant but issued a statement saying that “the temporary distribution point of the command structure of the 56th motor infantry brigade” in Kramatorsk had been destroyed.
Russian state propagandists claimed the restaurant had been a base for foreign soldiers. “The missiles were aimed at NATO instructors and the strike’s objective was achieved,” the Russian talk show host, Olga Skabeyeva, said during her daily show.
“I still can’t get past the thought that I could have been killed today,” Lila Trokhymets. a Ukrainian volunteer who was having dinner at Ria when the missile slammed into Ria’s roof, wrote on Instagram. “My brain refuses to accept that.”
“This is the reality in Ukraine — one second you are having dinner, the next you’re dead, or almost dead” Trokhymets wrote, adding that she and her team had all got concussions in the attack.
Ebel reported from Kramatorsk and Kyiv, Ukraine.
