Fourteen dead in Russian missile strike on Chernihiv

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KYIV — A Russian missile attack has killed 14 people in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine's interior minister said there were more than 60 injured in the attack, which hit an eight-story building in a densely populated area.

Three missiles had struck close to the center of the city, officials said.

The attack came hours after reports of a Ukrainian strike on a Russian military airfield in occupied Crimea.

Details have yet to be confirmed, although local social media channels shared video of an apparent fire on the airfield at Dzhankoy in northern Crimea.

In Chernihiv, acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako said one building had suffered a direct hit from one of the Russian missiles and several floors had been damaged. The presidential office in Kyiv said another four high-rise buildings, a hospital, dozens of cars and a higher education institution were all damaged in the attack.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that two children were among the casualties, and police were searching the rubble for further victims.

Video from the scene showed people getting off a trolleybus and diving for cover in the city. Officials appealed for the public to come forward to give blood.

Emergency services are continuing to search the rubble for more victims.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian strike would not have happened "if Ukraine had received sufficient air defence equipment", and he repeated an appeal to Western allies to provide support.

Chernihiv is only 100km (60 miles) from the Russian border.

Parts of the Chernihiv region not far from the city were occupied for several weeks at the start of the 2022 invasion while Russia tried to capture Kyiv to the south.

The city was under siege for more than a month. It was about 70% destroyed and hundreds of civilians were killed, the mayor said.

A theatre in the city was also hit in a missile attack in August 2023 which killed seven people.

In a US TV interview on Monday, the Ukrainian leader also blamed Ukraine's declining air defences for Russia's ability to destroy a key thermal power plant supplying Kyiv and other regions last week.

Mr Zelensky said 11 missiles were fired at the Trypillya plant and Ukrainian forces were only able to bring down seven of them. "Four destroyed Trypillya. Why? Because we had zero missiles. We ran out of all missiles," he told PBS.

Kyiv has been waiting for months for a $60bn (£48bn) US aid package to get through Congress, but it has been held up by Republican objections.

Mr Zelensky said the world had shown unity in assisting non-Nato country Israel when it came under Iranian missile attack, and he has called for the same political will to be shown to Ukraine. — BBC