KYIV: Russian strikes on the Ukrainian central city of Pavlograd on Friday killed one and injured more than 60 others, including several children, officials said.
Russia has intensified aerial strikes on Ukraine since Kyiv started an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region last month.
Ukraine’s air force said that five Iskander ballistic missiles were fired from Russian territory toward Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
“It’s a difficult day for the region,” said regional governor Sergiy Lysak. “The number of people injured in Pavlograd has risen to 64,” in addition to one death. Those injured included five minors, including a nine-year-old girl and two boys aged 11 and four.
He added more than 30 multi-storey buildings, a kindergarten and 27 shops were damaged by the rockets. Lysak said the attack also caused several fires in the city, including in an apartment in a high-rise building.
The Pavlograd city is situated about 100 kilometres away from Donetsk region as Russian forces advance there.
As per media reports and eye witnesses, thick black smoke was coming out of several windows. In a separate attack on Friday in the northern border region of Sumy, a Russian air strike on the village of Krasnopillia killed a 66-year-old woman in her home and injured four others, the regional prosecutor said.
On Wednesday, seven people were killed in a rare Russian missile attack on the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
