At least 20 people were killed in a Russian missile attack in the centre of the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, according to the authorities. Another 90 people were injured, police chief Ihor Klymenko announced on Facebook on Thursday, transmits MIA.
According to the report, three rockets hit an office centre. As a result, a fire broke out, engulfing about 50 parked cars. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted immediately: “What is this, if not an open terrorist act?” he wrote on the Telegram messaging service. He said Russia was killing civilians every day and attacking civilian objects with missiles where there were no soldiers present. “Barbarians. Murderer state. Terrorist state,” Zelensky wrote.
Since its invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, Russia has repeatedly stressed that it only attacks military targets in the neighbouring country – even though the many civilian victims are now obvious. The southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolayiv was also struck by missiles again during the night. The nine missiles hit buildings such as a hotel and at least one school.
The authorities said one person was injured. Meanwhile, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, clean-up operations were completed in Chasiv Yar, where a residential building was destroyed on Saturday. Since then, a total of 48 bodies have been recovered, according to the authorities.
The Ukrainian army said it has again shelled targets in the Russian-occupied region of Kherson in the south of the country.
According to the spokesman for the Odessa military administration, Serhiy Brachuk, two command points and a landing site were attacked in the town of Nova Kakhovka. The Southern Command announced late Wednesday that 13 enemy soldiers had been killed and several armoured vehicles destroyed. This could not initially be independently verified.
The pro-Russian administration deployed in Nova Kakhovka said a total of 30 Ukrainian rockets had been fired. The majority, however, had been intercepted, the statement continued. According to Russian information, no one was killed.
The Ukrainian army had begun a counter-offensive on Nova Kakhovka on Monday night. With the help of Western weapons, Ukraine wants to recapture areas that have been occupied by Russian soldiers in the course of the war, which has now lasted four and a half months.
