Chernihiv: Russian missile strike kills seven and injures 144, Ukraine says

BBC News:

Seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed when a Russian missile struck a theatre in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday morning, officials have said.

Fifteen children were among 144 people wounded, the police said. At least 25 people were in hospital.

Among the victims were people who had been celebrating an Orthodox Christian holiday at church.

A main square and a university building were also damaged in the attack.

The UN called it “heinous”, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed a firm response by Ukrainian soldiers to a “terrorist attack”.

Chernihiv is located about 50km (31 miles) south of Ukraine’s border with Belarus. It was besieged by Russian troops in the first few months of President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

The city’s imposing theatre was hit directly. Tiles were blown off the roofs of neighbouring buildings with one catching fire 100 metres away.

The theatre was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers, the acting mayor of Chernihiv told the BBC.

“I understand that their aim was a military event taking place in the building of the drama theatre and that it was their target,” Oleksandr Lomako said.

“But it is clear that the Russians launching those missiles and those giving them orders in the middle of the day to the civilian city realised that the victims will be primarily civilians.

“There is no other way to interpret it than a war crime against civilians, yet another Russian war crime,” he added.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko later said all those inside the theatre had managed to reach shelter in time.

He said that “most of the victims were in their vehicles or crossing the road at the time of the rocket strike, as well as returning from a church”.