Russia strikes Ukraine’s Chernihiv killing at least seven, wounding 90 others

Seven people including a 6-year-old child were killed and 90 wounded when a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place, the ministry said, adding 12 of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was on a working visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram.

“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he added.

A short video accompanying Zelenskyy’s post showed debris scattered across a square in front of the regional drama theater, where parked cars were heavily damaged. One body could also be briefly seen in the video slouched inside a car.

Chernihiv is a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Kyiv.
The interior ministry said the roof of the drama theater had been destroyed in the strike.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the frontline with missiles and drones as part of the invasion it launched in February last year.

Kyiv’s air force said early on Saturday the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.