Russian missiles slam into a Ukraine city, killing 17 people
KYIV, Ukraine — Three Russian missiles slammed into a downtown area of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday, hitting an eight-floor apartment building and killing at least 17 people, authorities said.
At least 61 people, including three children, were wounded in the morning attack, Ukrainian emergency services said, as rescue workers searched through partially demolished buildings and tall mounds of rubble. Chernihiv lies about 90 miles north of the capital, Kyiv, near the border with Russia and Belarus, and has a population of around 250,000 people.
The latest Russian bombardment came as the war has stretched into its third year and approaches what could be a critical juncture. A lack of further military support from Ukraine’s Western partners increasingly leaves it at the mercy of the Kremlin’s bigger forces.
Could Ukraine lose the war? Once nearly taboo, the question hovers in Kyiv, but Ukrainians believe they must fight for their lives against Putin’s troops.
Through the winter months, Russia made no dramatic advance along the 620-mile front line, focusing instead on attritional warfare. However, Ukraine’s shortage of artillery ammunition, troops and armored vehicles has allowed the Russians to gradually push forward, military analysts say.
A crucial factor is the holdup in Washington of approval for an aid package that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that he would try to move the package forward this week.
Ukraine’s need is acute, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“The Russians are breaking out of positional warfare and beginning to restore maneuver to the battlefield because of the delays in the provision of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine,†the institute said in an assessment late Tuesday, adding that “only the U.S. can provide rapidly and at scale.â€
Ukraine received some good news Wednesday from Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who said his country has secured 500,000 artillery shells for Ukraine from countries outside the European Union. The first shells are due for delivery in June.
The 27-nation EU promised a year ago to send Ukraine 1 million artillery shells, but the bloc was unable to produce that many.
In a Ukrainian village, a woman wants only one thing: to find her husband, who disappeared shortly after Russia’s war on Ukraine started two years ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with Western countries to provide more air defense equipment, including more surface-to-air Patriot guided missile systems. He said the Chernihiv strike “would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror was also sufficient.â€
Zelensky told PBS in an interview broadcast earlier this week that Ukraine recently ran out of air defense missiles while it was defending against a major missile and drone attack that destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants, part of a recent Russian campaign targeting energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba repeated Zelensky’s appeal as he prepared to attend a Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting in Italy.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have killed 8 people in drone and missile attacks including in Kharkiv, striking homes, cafe, gas station, a kindergarten.
“We need at least seven more Patriot batteries to protect our cities and economic centers from destruction,†Kuleba told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview published Wednesday. “Why is it so difficult to find seven Patriot batteries?â€
Ukrainian forces are digging in, building fortifications in anticipation of a major Russian offensive that Kyiv officials say could come as early as next month.
Ukraine is using long-range drone and missile strikes behind Russian lines which are designed to disrupt Moscow’s war machine.
Russia’s defense ministry said a Ukrainian drone was shot down over the Tatarstan region early Wednesday. That’s the same area that was targeted in early April by Ukraine’s deepest strike so far inside Russia, about 745 miles east of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say first responders who arrived at the scene of a Russian missile attack in Odesa were themselves struck by a second missile.
Ukrainian drone developers have been extending the weapons’ range.
Another Ukrainian drone was shot down over the Mordovia region, roughly 220 miles east of Moscow, the ministry said. That is 430 miles from the Ukrainian border.
About an hour before the Mordovia attack, Russia’s civil aviation authority halted flights at airports in two of the country’s largest cities, Nizhny Novgorod and Tatarstan’s Kazan, because of safety concerns.
Also, unconfirmed reports said a Ukrainian missile struck an airfield in occupied Crimea. Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials confirmed the strike, but local authorities temporarily closed a road where the airfield is located. Russian news agency Tass quoted the local mayor as saying windows in a mosque and a private house in the region were shattered in a blast there.
Novikov writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.
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