Russian strikes kill at least 25 in Ukraine, 19 in Pryluky

Russia hit Kyiv and about a dozen other Ukrainian regions with missiles and drones overnight into Wednesday, Oct. 7. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 25 people were killed and 100 injured. Interior Minister Ihor Vyhivskyi gave a higher national toll of 28. The worst damage was in Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region, where a missile destroyed much of a five-storey apartment block. Zelenskiy said 19 people died there, five of them children.reuters

The attack fell on Russian President Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday. Zelenskiy called it one of Russia's most "vile strikes." "This is the kind of birthday present that Putin gave himself: the killing of children, the killing of people," he said in his nightly video address.reuters

Rescue work in Pryluky

Locals said the missile struck at about 6:30 a.m., while families were asleep. The blast reduced half of the building to charred concrete and twisted metal. Zelenskiy said three of the children killed were 12 months old and another was eight. Ukraine's interior ministry said a fifth child's body was recovered from the rubble in the evening. Rescuers with an excavator and shovels pulled 15 survivors from the building, and regional officials said about 55 people were wounded in the town.straitstimes+1

"We were at home, sleeping," resident Olena Sayun told AFP. "Thank God, we covered the child with our bodies".straitstimes

People were also killed in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriya. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people died in a fire in the Darnytskyi district. Many people in the capital spent the night in metro stations after officials warned an attack was coming.reuters+2

Missiles strain air defences

Zelenskiy said Russia fired 70 missiles, many of them ballistic. Ukraine's air force said the attack included at least 50 missiles and 130 drones. It also said it shot down just over 80% of 46 jet-powered drones, up from an average of 50% to 60% in recent weeks, but it did not say why the rate had improved.straitstimes+1

Zelenskiy said ballistic missiles remain "the greatest challenge". Only U.S.-made Patriot systems can stop them, and global supplies are tight because of the Iran war. Ukraine's energy ministry began emergency power cuts in five regions.reuters+2

Moscow's claims and Kyiv's response

Russia's defence ministry said it carried out a "massive strike" on military-industrial sites. It named facilities where the Ukrainian company Fire Point makes and stores Flamingo cruise missiles and long-range drones.reuters

Zelenskiy said Ukraine hit two oil facilities and a training ground in Russia's Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, and made a "response in the Black Sea". On the same day, the European Commission paid out €1.24 billion to Ukraine for drones, interceptors and missiles.bbc+1

"Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of terror," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. "Others must step up their support too".cbc