Child, 6, dies and over 100 injured in Russia missile attack on theatre
UKRAINIAN president Volodymyr Zelensky branded Russia a ‘terrorist state’ after a missile strike last night left a six-year-old girl and another six people dead.
The attack hit the Taras Shevchenko Theatre as well as a church crammed with religious holiday-goers in the city of Chernihiv, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.
The destruction also injured more than 100 others. Speaking during a visit to Sweden, Mr Zelensky said the attack had turned ‘an ordinary Saturday into a day of pain and loss’.
The president added: ‘This is what it means to live next to a terrorist state. This is what we are uniting the entire world against.
Today, a Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv. A square, a university and a theatre. I urge the world to stand up to Russian terror. For life to win, Russia must lose.’
In a short video, released by Ukrainian officials, debris can be seen scattered across the square. It shows a body slumped inside a car and a row of vehicles heavily damaged by the blast.
Chernihiv lies about 90 miles from the capital of Kyiv and is known for its centuries-old churches and leafy boulevards. Igor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, confirmed that the number of injured victims now stands at 129 – 15 of whom are children.
It came as Kyiv’s air force shot down 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike against the capital.
The Russian attack was in retaliation to a series of successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow and a Russian airfield in Novgorod.
The Kremlin claimed another drone strike targeting Moscow had been thwarted yesterday too.
On his first visit to Sweden since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Mr Zelensky tweeted: ‘We have a broad agenda, but defence co-operation is one of the top priorities, including powerful Swedish CV-90s [armoured combat vehicles]. Our warriors are already putting them to good use on the battlefield. We also intend to produce them in Ukraine.’
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the commander of his forces in Ukraine and other top generals.
A Kremlin spokesman said Mr Putin had held meetings ‘at the headquarters of the special military operation group in Rostov-on-Don’ – a town in southern Russia.
They added: ‘The head of state listened to briefings by the chief of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces and other senior officers of the group.’
Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Ukraine, said: ‘It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city while people are out walking, some going to church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians [the Transfiguration of the Lord].’
‘An ordinary Saturday is now a day of pain and loss’