KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles have struck a city in southern Ukraine, killing seven civilians, including children, and wounding dozens of others, local authorities said.
Ukrainian officials published photos of bodies lying under picnic blankets in a Vilniansk park, and of deep craters in the blackened earth next to the charred, twisted remains of a building.
Thirty-six people were injured in Saturday night’s attack, authorities said, and Sunday was declared a day of mourning. Vilniansk is located in the Zaporizhia region, less than 30 kilometers from the local capital and north of the front lines, while Russian troops continue to occupy part of the province.
According to local governor Ivan Fedorov, three children were among the dead and nine others were injured.
In a separate Telegram post hours earlier, Fedorov said the strike damaged a store, residential buildings and an unspecified “critical infrastructure” facility in Vilniansk, which had a population of about 14,300 before Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia continues to expand Ukraine’s armed forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in an effort to deplete Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.
In the aftermath of the attack on Vilniansk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Kiev’s Western partners to strengthen air defenses and long-range munitions to deter Russian attacks.
Eight civilians have been killed and 14 others wounded in the war-torn eastern Donetsk region, local governor Vadym Filashkin said, with much of the province under almost daily shelling. Shelling in the southern Kherson region also injured one civilian and five more during the same period, governor Oleksandr Prokudin told Telegram.
Four people were injured in northeastern Kharkov province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent months as Russia launched a cross-border operation that threatened Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to local governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Sunday that its forces shot down three dozen Ukrainian drones in one night over six regions in southwestern Russia.
Debris from a drone fell on a village in the Kursk region, blowing out windows and damaging roofs and fences, according to a Telegram message from regional governor Alexey Smirnov. In the city of Lipetsk, further north, a drone was shot down as it appeared to be targeting an industrial area, local governor Igor Artamonov reported. There were no casualties in either case.
