A day of mourning was announced for Friday in a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including three children, were killed by a missile, regional officials said. Zelenskyy said that five children were missing at the house, which was almost completely eradicated by the force of the blast.
“Fragments of human bodies were found under the rubble, and only forensic examinations can establish which members of the family they belong to,” he said. Two sources said the strike was likely a powerful North Korean ballistic missile – marking the first time in nearly a year that Russia has used such a weapon from its ally.
One person was killed in Kyiv, one in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border, and another in Poltava in central Ukraine, officials said. In Kyiv, where air alerts lasted more than five hours overnight, thousands of people sheltered in metro stations. With the war in its fifth year, the failure of authorities to open enough air raid shelters has stirred anger among many residents of the capital.
Both Russia and Ukraine have escalated their long-range air strikes as movement on the 1,200-km front line has slowed, with the predominance of aerial drones making any major military breakthroughs difficult.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
RESCUERS PULL PEOPLE FROM DESTROYED BUILDING IN LVIV
In Lviv, a Russian missile hit a residential apartment building but did not explode, the city’s mayor said.
Emergency workers pulled people out of the building, which suffered damage to its roof and upper floors.
“I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs,” resident Marko told Reuters as rescuers pulled a boy from the damaged building.
“I’m proud that we have rescuers who aren’t afraid to go into situations where those slabs could collapse on them.”
About 30 people, including three children, were injured in the city where two residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, city officials said.
