At least 17 people were killed and more than 60 injured in a triple Russian strike on Wednesday in Cherniguiv, a large city in northern Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelensky once again blamed the lack of aid from the West. “According to the latest information, 17 people died, including two who died in hospital,” said the Ukrainian State Emergency Situations Service. “Sixty other people including three children were injured,” he added, specifying that rescue work was continuing.
According to the authorities, “social infrastructure, an educational institution, a hospital” and sixteen residential buildings were damaged. On official images, we could see pools of blood at the scene of the tragedy.
Eight-story hotel partly destroyed
Olga Samoïlenko, a resident, told AFP how she and her children took refuge in the corridor of their building for protection when the first missile exploded. “Our neighbors were already there. We started shouting for everyone to get on the ground. That’s what they did. There were two more explosions. So we ran to the parking lot,” said this 33-year-old woman.
AFP journalists on site saw a body being extracted from the rubble as well as the most affected building, an eight-story hotel, parts of which were completely destroyed. Numerous ambulances and fire trucks were visible at the scene, as well as tents set up by police and rescuers. Cars parked near the epicenter had their windshields destroyed.
Ukraine does not have enough air defenses to prevent this attack, says Zelensky
President Zelensky stressed that Ukraine did not have enough air defenses to prevent this attack, undoubtedly the deadliest against this historic city located about sixty kilometers from the border with Belarus, ally of Russia, and about a hundred kilometers north of kyiv. “This would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to resist Russian terror had been sufficient,” the Ukrainian leader insisted on Telegram.
Because Russia bombards Ukrainian cities daily with explosive missiles and drones, particularly its energy infrastructure. Faced with Western aid, particularly American aid, which is running out of steam, Ukraine is faced with a growing lack of means to intercept these devices. It is desperately urging its partners to deliver more weapons and air defense systems.
The reluctance of the allies particularly frustrated kyiv after a massive Iranian air attack on Israel this weekend, successfully repelled thanks in particular to Western military support, while a crucial envelope of American aid to Ukraine has been blocked for months in the American Congress. “Three days ago, in the Middle East, we saw what reliable protection of human lives against missiles looks like,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba wrote bitterly on Facebook on Wednesday.
300,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion in February 2022
In Cherniguiv, three explosions occurred at 9:03 a.m. local time (7:03 a.m. GMT) almost in the city center, according to local authorities. This city, one of the oldest in Ukraine, founded more than 1,000 years ago, had around 300,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion in February 2022. It was heavily bombed by the Russian army at the start of this offensive and a part of the region had been occupied for several weeks.
On the Russian side, military bloggers and media reported a Ukrainian strike during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday on the Russian military base of Djankoi, in the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Alleged videos of the attack, broadcast on social networks, show impressive explosions in the middle of the night.
According to the Rybar Telegram account, close to the Russian army and followed by more than a million people, 12 ATACMS tactical missiles delivered to kyiv by the United States could have hit this target, damaging equipment and a building. kyiv and Moscow have not yet officially commented.
Finally, providing a new minimum estimate of Russian losses, the independent Russian site Mediazona and the BBC Russian service said they had identified by name, based on public information, more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since the start two years ago. years of the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian side does not communicate its losses. For his part, the Ukrainian president admitted in February the deaths of 31,000 soldiers.