Seven dead in fresh Russian attack on Ukraine city

A Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv killed seven people and wounded more than 100 on Saturday, in what the UN called a “heinous” attack hours after President Vladimir Putin met Moscow’s top army commanders.

“It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians,” said Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine.

She was referring to the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord which saw some in Chernihiv attending church services in the morning.

“I condemn this repeated pattern of Russian strikes on populated areas of Ukraine… Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she added.

Chernihiv, 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Kyiv towards Belarus, has been largely spared from major attacks since the first months of Russia’s invasion as fierce fighting rages in the east and south.

The Russian army marched through the city when it invaded Ukraine through Belarus in February 2022, before being repelled by Kyiv’s forces.

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Saturday’s strike came after Putin held talks with top Russian generals in a rare trip to operational hub Rostov-on-Don and as his Ukrainian nemesis, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Sweden for talks with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

“As of 3:25 pm (1225 GMT), 117 people were injured in the terrorist attack on the centre of Chernihiv, seven of them died,” Oleksandr Lomako, Chernihiv’s acting mayor, said on Telegram.

Viacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv region’s military administration, said on Telegram that a child was among the dead.

Zelensky said the attack hit a square that houses a “polytechnic university, a theatre”.

“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he said after his arrival in Sweden.

AFP