Kyiv: Russian missiles hit civilian buildings in a central Ukrainian city overnight, killing at least 10 people, regional officials said Tuesday. Rescuers meanwhile searched for at least one person still believed to be trapped under the rubble. Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that the death toll had risen to at least 10 in the Russian missile attack while 28 people have suffered injuries. The condition of some of those injured is stated to be critical, he added.
The strike involving cruise missiles hit a five-story residential building, which was engulfed in fire, Governor Serhiy Lysak of the Dnipropetrovsk region wrote on Telegram. The devastation in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown is the latest bloodshed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The missile attack came at a time when Ukrainian forces are mounting counter-offensive operations using Western-supplied firepower to try to drive out the Russians.
Images from the scene relayed by Zelenskyy on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the blaze as pockets of fire poked through multiple broken windows of a building. Charred and damaged vehicles littered the nearby ground. “More terrorist missiles,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Zelenskyy added.
The aerial assault was the latest barrage of strikes by Russian forces that targeted various parts of Ukraine overnight.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was attacked with Iranian-made ‘Shahed’ drones, and the surrounding region was shelled, local Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. The shelling wounded two civilians in the town of Shevchenkove, southeast of Kharkiv.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, separately reported early Tuesday that the drone strike damaged a utilities business and a warehouse in the city’s northeast. Neither Terekhov nor Syniehubov referenced any casualties within Kharkiv.
The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital came under fire as well Tuesday, but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defenses and there were no immediate reports of any casualties there. Air defences overnight shot down 10 out of 14 cruise missiles and one of four Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russian forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said on its Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s ground troops said the country’s forces were ‘moving forward’ outside the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram that Russian forces are ‘losing positions on the flanks,” while Ukrainian troops were conducting “defensive” operations in the area.
