Russian attack hits flats in one of deadliest strikes on western Ukraine

BBC:

At least 16 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a Russian drone and missile attack on the western city of Ternopil that hit two blocks of flats, Ukrainian officials say.

Among the 64 wounded were 14 children, police said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes on western Ukraine since the full-scale war began in February 2022.

Two other western regions were hit, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, and a drone attack targeted three districts of the northern city of Kharkiv, wounding more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts were affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had fired more than 470 drones and 47 missiles, leaving “significant destruction”. He warned that people could be trapped under the rubble in Ternopil.

The devastation caused by the Russian strikes soon became clear. A video shared by Zelensky showed that one of the two blocks of flats had completely caved in. The interior minister Ihor Klymenko said it had been destroyed between the third and the ninth floor.

Plumes of smoke poured from windows and small fires burned outside the tenement.