Russian Strikes Across Ukraine Kill At Least 28, Including Five Children

Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least 28 people on Wednesday, including five children who died after a missile hit an apartment building in Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region.

The powerful blast, which struck the five-storey residential building early in the morning, shattered windows and reduced part of the structure to a pile of charred concrete and twisted metal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said three of the children killed were just one year old, while another was eight. The body of another child was recovered from the rubble later in the evening, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.

Ukrainian authorities said 20 people were killed in the Pryluky strike, while seven other children were among dozens of people wounded.

Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians and ordinary communities.

“The continued use of missiles against Ukraine, against our people, our children, is an absolutely deliberate choice of terror,” he said.

Residents Recount Horrifying Attack

The strike hit Pryluky at around 6:30 am local time, according to residents.

“We were at home, sleeping,” Olena Sayun, a 40-year-old massage therapist, told AFP.

“Our windows blew out. Thank God, we covered the child with our bodies. My husband got a few cuts on his back and I did too.”

She said her frightened family rushed to the bathroom for shelter as the apartment was being torn apart by the blast.

The attack came a day after Zelensky warned that Russia could launch a “massive” assault, particularly against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Two people were also killed when missiles struck a high-rise building in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, while two others died in Oleksandriya, Zelensky said.

In Kyiv, two people were killed in a fire triggered by a strike in the densely populated Darnytskyi district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Two more people were later killed in additional strikes.

Russia Launches Missiles, Drones

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched at least 50 missiles and 130 drones overnight against several regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Poltava.

The Air Force later said it had intercepted five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles and more than 100 drones.

Zelensky described the attack as one of the “most vile strikes” of the nearly five-year war, saying ballistic missiles remained the biggest challenge for Ukraine’s air defenses.

“I don’t see any military significance in this at all,” Yuliia Shamrai, 31, who lives near the damaged building in Pryluky, told AFP.

Kyiv Residents Take Shelter Underground

Kyiv has faced increasingly frequent attacks as winter approaches, with air raid sirens sounding for prolonged periods.

Residents sought refuge in subway stations, carrying bags, sleeping mats and blankets.

“The whole of Kyiv is in a state of fear,” said Iryna Rybalchenko, a bank employee who took shelter underground.

“We were stuck at work today and everyone — our group chats, our bosses — were messaging us to be careful.”

Klitschko had warned last week that Kyiv should be prepared for a wartime emergency following repeated attacks on bridges and energy infrastructure.

Power cuts affected parts of the capital on Wednesday evening, disrupting traffic and causing water outages on the right bank of Kyiv.

Civilian Casualties Rise

Ukraine has struggled to intercept newer, fast-moving jet-powered drones as well as ballistic missiles, which are significantly harder to shoot down.

At the same time, concerns are growing over civilian casualties on both sides as Ukraine intensifies its long-range strikes against Russian targets.

In the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, two people, including a teenage girl, were reportedly killed in a drone strike, according to the Moscow-backed administration.

Two more people were killed in a drone attack on a village near the Russia-annexed city of Donetsk, Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said.

Zelensky said Ukraine had carried out what he called “just responses” to Russian attacks, targeting two oil facilities and a training ground in Russia’s Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, as well as targets in the Black Sea.