Children among 26 killed in one of Russia’s deadliest strikes on western Ukraine

BBC:

At least 26 people have been killed including three children in a Russian missile and drone attack that hit two blocks of flats in the western city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials say.

They say another 93 people were wounded, 18 of them children, in the strike early on Wednesday – one of the deadliest in the region since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s air force later said Russian X-101 cruise missiles had hit the residential flats.

The neighbouring Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions were also struck, and a drone attack on three districts of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv wounded more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 442 of 476 drones and 41 of 48 missiles launched by Russia, including 10 missiles destroyed by F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets supplied to Kyiv by its Western allies.

But in a reference to how stretched Ukraine’s air defences currently are, the air force pleaded for “the uninterrupted and timely supply of aviation weapons from Western partners”.

Ternopil, a city closer to the Polish border than the capital Kyiv, has rarely faced attacks since the full-scale invasion. Social media footage of this strike shows missiles shooting across the sky towards the city, though very little sign of air defences reacting from the ground.

The devastation caused by the Russian strikes on Ternopil soon became clear. A video shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed one of the blocks of flats had completely caved in. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said it had been destroyed between the third and ninth floors.

The attack had caused “significant destruction”, said Zelensky, and many victims were reported to be in the rubble. Plumes of smoke poured from windows and small fires burned outside the tenement.

A giant smoke cloud rose in the distance behind the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ternopil, as sirens blared throughout the city.

With limited defence systems, and a vast country to defend every night, no matter how effective Ukraine becomes at shooting down Russian missiles and drones, there is always a risk some will get through – to devastating effect, as happened in Ternopil.