President Volodymyr Zelensky described overnight missile and drone strikes as one of Russia's most vile attacks. Published casualty counts from Ukrainian officials differed through the day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired about 70 missiles, along with drones, in overnight strikes that he called one of the most vile attacks of the war, the BBC reported on Wednesday. He said a residential building in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, was destroyed and described the barrage as a birthday gift for Vladimir Putin, who turns 74 on Wednesday. Moscow had not commented in the BBC account.
Published casualty figures from Ukrainian officials were not uniform through the day. An earlier Reuters dispatch quoted Zelensky saying the strikes killed at least 11 people and targeted the energy sector. The BBC later reported Zelensky putting the toll at 24, including 18 people, four of them children, in one strike on a five-storey apartment building in Pryluky, with 50 injured there including seven children. A separate Reuters item said the Pryluky governor put that city's death toll at 13. This brief does not reconcile those counts.
Zelensky, as cited by the BBC, also said two people were killed and eight injured after missiles damaged five apartment buildings in Dnipro and four high-rise buildings in Kremenchuk, and that two people were killed in Kyiv and two in Oleksandriya. He said Russian ballistic missiles remained the greatest challenge and that air-defence packages were a vital necessity.
The State Emergency Service was still searching rubble in Pryluky on Wednesday morning, the BBC reported. The strikes fit a pattern of attacks on housing and energy sites. No independent damage assessment was available in the sources used here.
Next steps cited by Ukrainian officials were continued rescue work and a renewed request for air defence. Reuters said the energy sector was a key target. No Russian military statement was included in the reports checked for this hour.
People Sentiments Negative
- Zelensky said the Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively.
- He called air-defence packages a vital necessity.