At least 25 people were killed in a Russian drone and missile attack overnight that hit apartment buildings in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
About 80 others were wounded as Russia fired 476 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine, striking energy and transport infrastructure and forcing emergency power cuts in a number of regions in frigid temperatures.
The upper floors of a residential building in Ternopil were torn away in the attack. Smoke poured upwards as fire crews tried to douse flames, while devastated residents huddled outside waiting for news of loved ones.
“It seems that from the ninth to the first floor, this fiery lava engulfed our people. They did not have time to escape from their flats because everything was on fire,” interior minister Ihor Klymenko said in televised comments.
Officials said three children were among the dead and that the death toll could rise, with about 25 people still missing.
Oksana Kobel hoped her son would be found alive. He had been in a ninth-floor apartment at the time of the attack.
“I went to work, heard the explosions. I called him and said ‘Bohdan, go to the shelter, get dressed.’ He answered ‘Mom, I am already up, everything will be fine’,” she said.
Poland, a Nato member state bordering western Ukraine, temporarily closed Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast of the country and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution to safeguard its airspace.
Russia launched the attack as president Volodymyr Zelenskiy travelled for talks in Turkey intended to help revive peace negotiations with Russia, after his short tour to European capitals.
Mr Zelenskiy urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, including by providing Kyiv with more air-defence missiles.
[ Ukraine in ‘urgent’ need of funds, von der Leyen warns EU leadersOpens in new window ]
“Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this,” he said on X.
Ukraine will “bring Russia’s horrific murder … to the spotlight of tomorrow’s UN Security Council meeting”, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Energy infrastructure was hit in seven Ukrainian regions, officials said. Restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country.
A Reuters witness in the western city of Lviv reported hearing explosions and the northwestern city of Kharkiv came under fire. Residents took cover in metro stations far away in Kyiv.
Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, said it had launched air strikes in response to what it called “terrorist attacks” on Russian territories. It said Ukrainian forces had fired four US-made ATACMS missiles at the southern Russian city of Voronezh.
Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday it had attacked military targets in Russia with the missiles. – Reuters