- Adam Durbin & James Fedzerald
- BBC
Pictures released by Ukrainian officials showed rescuers pulling victims from the rubble
A two-year-old girl was killed and 22 others were injured after an alleged Russian airstrike hit a residential area in the city of Dnipro, central Ukraine.
The district governor said the girl’s body was recovered from the rubble of a house in the Pidhorodninska complex during the night.
Serhiy Lysak said that among the victims were five children, three of whom were in serious condition.
A video clip shared by President Volodymyr Zelensky showed rescuers trying to extract the rest of the victims from under the rubble of a two-storey building. .
Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack, but the Kremlin has yet to comment on the events.
Explosions were also heard in the capital, Kiev, where the air defense systems were activated again, and the military authorities had classified all Ukrainian lands as being at risk of air strikes.
Zelensky described the explosion in Dnipro as a deliberate Russian attack, although Russia has previously denied targeting civilians during its war in Ukraine.
The fires broke out following the alleged strike in an area north of the city, according to the provincial governor, who said 17 of those injured in the blast had been taken to hospital.
Several explosions have also been reported in other parts of the country.
The military administration of the Ukrainian capital said, via its Telegram channel, that the air defense systems participated, early on Sunday, in repelling air attacks near Kiev, and that they shot down all the missiles that targeted the city.
Ukrainian officials said that 87 explosions took place in the northern city of Sumy as a result of the Russian bombing, and they spoke of injuries and damage to the infrastructure.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, said that cruise missiles hit an operational airfield near the city of Kropyvnitsky in the center of the country.
He added that the air defenses were able to shoot down only four of the six missiles, without giving details of the damage to the site.
Footage released by Ukrainian officials of rescuers clearing rubble
More than a dozen explosions have also been reported in the Russian-occupied southern cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol, with little detail.
In Russia itself, officials said earlier on Saturday that two more people were killed in new attacks in the Belgorod border region, calling on residents in towns and villages along the Russia-Ukraine border to leave their homes.
Local authorities said Ukraine was responsible, although Ukraine said the deaths were the result of Russia’s attempt to target anti-government fighters in Moscow. Kiev denied any direct involvement.
The region has witnessed a series of attacks in recent weeks, most notably a major cross-border incursion late last month, which Moscow said ended with the killing of 70 attackers.
In other developments, Ihor Zovkva, a close aide to President Zelensky, said his country is not yet ready to begin its long-promised counter-offensive against the occupying Russian soldiers.
Speaking to the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Zovkva blamed a shortage of weapons and ammunition.
His words appeared to contradict those of Zelensky, who said just a day earlier that Ukraine was ready to launch its counter-offensive.
But the inconsistent comments by Ukrainian officials may have been a deliberate attempt to confuse Moscow, the Sunday Times reported.
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2023-06-04 14:48:45
