Ukraine war: 17 dead in Russian missile strike on Chernihiv

A Russian missile attack has killed 17 people in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, according to emergency services.

More than 60 including three children were injured in the attack, which hit an eight-storey building in a densely populated area, the city’s mayor said.

Three missiles had struck close to the centre of the city, officials said.

The attack came hours after reports of a Ukrainian strike on a Russian military airfield in occupied Crimea.

Details have yet to be confirmed, although local social media channels shared a video of an apparent fire on the airfield at Dzhankoy in northern Crimea.

In Chernihiv, acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako said one building had suffered a direct hit from one of the Russian missiles and several floors had been damaged. The presidential office in Kyiv said another four high-rise buildings, a hospital, dozens of cars and a higher education institution were all damaged in the attack.

Emergency services searched the rubble for victims and officials appealed for the public to come forward to give blood.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian strike would not have happened “if Ukraine had received sufficient air defence equipment”, and he repeated an appeal to Western allies to provide support.

Chernihiv is only 100km (60 miles) from the Russian border.

Parts of the Chernihiv region not far from the city were occupied for several weeks at the start of the 2022 invasion while Russia tried to capture Kyiv to the south.

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