Seven people, including a six-year-old child, were killed and 129 were wounded when a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
The attack came as people were on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday, the ministry said.
Of the 129 counted as wounded in the search and rescue operation, there were 15 children and 15 police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a Telegram post.
“A Russian missile hit right in the centre of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theatre,” Ukrainian 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.”
A short video accompanying Zelenskyy’s post showed debris scattered across a square in front of the regional drama theatre, where parked cars were heavily damaged. The video also briefly showed a body slumped inside a car.
Ukrainian media reported that a public event featuring drone manufacturers had been taking place inside the theatre at the time of the attack. Both sides in Russia’s 18-month-old invasion have widely used drones on the battlefield.
In comments to reporters, Klymenko confirmed only that an unspecified event had been taking place in the building and Ukraine’s domestic security service was investigating the matter.
Chernihiv is a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 kilometres north of the capital of Kyiv.
The roof of the neoclassical theatre was torn off by the strike, which also blew out doors and windows in neighbouring apartment buildings and store fronts.
The streets were stained with blood and strewn with scraps from first-aid supplies that had been used to treat the wounded.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the front line with missiles and drones as part of the full-scale invasion it launched in February last year.
Kyiv’s air force said early Saturday the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had destroyed a Ukrainian drone in the Belgorod region and jammed another near Moscow. A third struck a military airfield in the Novgorod region, damaging a warplane, it also said.
Also in Russia, President Vladimir Putin visited top military officials in the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin said Putin listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military brass at the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.
The exact timing of his visit was not confirmed, but state media published video footage that appeared to be filmed at night, showing Gerasimov greeting Putin and leading him into a building. The meeting itself was held behind closed doors.
It was Putin’s first visit to Rostov-on-Don since the Wagner mercenary group’s attempted mutiny in June, when the group’s fighters briefly took control of the city.