A Russian bombing left at least 17 dead and dozens injured this Wednesday in Chernigov, a city in northern Ukraine, an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said could have been avoided if it had received sufficient anti-aircraft defenses.
According to the latest balance sheet, 17 people died and 78 were injured, of which 40 were hospitalized, its mayor, Oleksandr Lomako, declared on Telegram.
The bombing damaged social infrastructure, an education center, a hospital and 16 residential buildings, according to Ukrainian authorities.
In official images, pools of blood could be seen. Olga Samoïlenko, a resident, told AFP that she took refuge with her children in the hallway of her building when the first missile exploded.
“We started shouting for everyone to get on the ground (…). There were two other explosions,” said this 33-year-old woman.
Zelensky, who reiterates his request for more help from Western powers to confront the Russian invasion, stated that Ukraine did not have sufficient air defenses to intercept the missiles that hit Chernigov.
“This would not have happened if Ukraine received sufficient air defense equipment and if the world's determination to resist Russia's terror was sufficient,” he lamented on Telegram.
“Ukraine needs immediate measures to strengthen its air defense,” he said in X, stating that he had informed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of the deadly bombing in Chernigov and other attacks on the power grid in recent weeks.
The city, located in a region of the same name bordering Belarus, was under occupation at the beginning of the Russian invasion. against Ukraine in 2022, but after the withdrawal of troops from Moscow about two years ago there has been no further fighting.
Russia bombards Ukraine relentlessly with missiles and explosive drones and mainly attacks the energy infrastructure of this former Soviet republic.
The mayor of Chernigov informed state media that The bombing hit a “very populated” area of the city and hit a civilian building.
Chernigov, one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, founded about 1,000 years ago, is 145 kilometers north of the Ukrainian capital and had a population of 285,000 before the war.
The town suffered significant damage when Russian tanks advanced from Belarus to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
AFP
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