Ukraine has arrested a man suspected of committing treason by helping Russia carry out a missile strike on a busy restaurant that killed 12 people in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.

The prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday an employee at a local gas transport company helped Moscow target the restaurant by filming cars with military licence plates in its car park and sending the footage to Russian special services.

Local officials said 12 people were killed and 60 hurt when a Russian missile slammed into the restaurant on Tuesday evening, reducing it to rubble.

“Anyone who helps Russian terrorists destroy lives deserves the maximum punishment,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message on Wednesday.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement the suspect had been informed he was suspected of committing treason, an offence that carries a possible life sentence.

It did not name him or say how he had responded to the accusation.

Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said rescue operations had been called off in Kramatorsk and urged people to leave for safer areas.

The 12 dead included a victim whose body was pulled out of the rubble early on Thursday and three children.

Twin sisters aged 14 were listed among the dead.

Asked about the attack on Kramatorsk, the Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia attacked only military targets, not civilian ones.

Russia’s defence ministry later said a temporary Ukrainian army command post had been struck in Kramatorsk.

Russia has frequently hit Ukrainian cities since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

It denies intentionally targeting civilians.

Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel condemned the attack.

“While others are focused on pursuing a way to end this war, Russia is again undertaking strikes,” he said.

Kramatorsk lies west of the front lines in Donetsk province and would be a likely objective in any westward advance by Russia.

-Reuters