Ukrainian woman pulled alive from the rubble of home destroyed in Russian airstrike

Rescuers in Ukraine managed to pull a woman alive from the wreckage of her home that had been destroyed in a Russian airstrike.

One person was killed and five were injured after Russia continued its attack on Ukraine, hitting buildings in Rubizhne, in the Luhansk region of the easter part of the country.

Photos released by authorities in Rubizhne show the woman covered in dust but emerging safely from mounds of timber and rock.

Emergency services carried her to an ambulance and she is now being treated in hospital, authorities said.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said that seven more people “extricated themselves from the rubble”.

Russia is believed to control around 60% of Rubizhne, with Putin’s forces hitting the east of the country hard in their offensive.

Russia carried out 81 mortar, artillery and rocket strikes over the past 24 hours alone, Haidai said.

As a result of several high-rises being targeted, Haidal has urged all civilians to leave the region immediately, and warned that a large attack is expected to be launched within the next “three to four days”.

Watch: The destruction left by the Russian army in Kyiv

It comes as Boris Johnson said the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine appeared close to “genocide”.

There has been an international wave of revulsion over reported atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv which have been recaptured by the Ukrainians as the Russians pull back.

Ukrainian officials said they had found the bodies of at least 410 civilians, some reported shot with their hands tied behind their backs.

There have also been reports of women being raped by Russian soldiers in front of their children.

Johnson said: “I’m afraid, when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn’t look far short of genocide to me, it is no wonder people are responding in the way that they are.”

Western officials warned such atrocities may be “widespread” pointing to the “toxic information climate” in Russia with calls for the “de-nazification” of Ukraine, with former president Dmitri Medvedev, still a close ally of Putin likening it to the Third Reich.

“When you combine that with a force which is failing and failing badly in an operation for which it was perhaps psychologically underprepared, it just a toxic mix,” one official said.

“The responsibility for this lies with the perpetrators of the acts but it also lies with the Russian leadership. Not only did they order the invasion, they set the tone and the context for this operation as well.”

Meanwhile, Western officials said the withdrawal of Russian forces from around the north of Kyiv appeared to be largely complete.

However they said it could be a “number of weeks” before they were ready for redeployment in the Donbas region – part-held by pro-Russian separatists – which is Moscow’s new focus of operations.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said they were now expecting a “major offensive” by the Russians in the Donbas, as he warned there could be “a long haul” ahead for Ukraine.

Speaking as alliance foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, he said: “We have seen no indication that president Putin has changed his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine and also to rewrite the international order so we need to be prepared for a long haul.”