Five dead in Russian missile attack in central Ukraine

At least five people have been killed in a Russian drone and missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials say.

Another 53 people were injured in the explosion early Wednesday morning, regional head Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram. According to official reports, shops, schools and hospitals were damaged by the attack.

Mr Lysak described the attack as “vicious”. Footage shared on social media showed a large cloud of smoke and fire rising from the buildings after the explosion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and renewed his appeal to Western allies to supply his government with additional air defense systems.

“Only two things can stop this Russian terror – modern air defense systems and the long-range capabilities of our weapons,” he wrote on social media.

Dnipro, a city with a pre-war population of about a million people, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since the war began over two years ago. Last year, 40 people were killed when a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the city.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down six drones and five of seven missiles aimed at the city early Wednesday.

But images released by Mr Lysak after the barrage show buildings in the city centre torn apart, with shards of glass scattered on the ground.

Georgii, an elderly witness with a bandaged nose and bloody face, told Reuters: “There was such a strong explosion that the wave hit me and I fell.”

Among the injured was a 14-year-old girl, Mr Lysak said. Four other people in serious condition were being treated in hospital, he added.

The chairman of the regional council, Mykola Lukashuk, condemned the act of Russian forces, which he described as “cynical terror”. The city administration has declared an official day of mourning.

Two civilians were killed in Donetsk and Luhansk in nighttime attacks in eastern Ukraine. In Kharkiv, a Russian bombing killed one person and wounded eight others, including an eight-year-old boy, local prosecutors said.

Russia has intensified its air strikes on Ukraine in recent months. While Moscow denies targeting civilian infrastructure, the UN human rights mission said May was the month with the most civilian casualties in almost a year.

During this time, President Zelenskyy has made increasingly urgent demands for new air defense systems and urged his Western allies to ignore Russian threats that such actions could trigger an escalation of tensions.

On Tuesday, he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has just taken over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Mr Orban has long been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe and has frequently criticised EU aid packages for Ukraine. The men’s body language during the tense meeting in Kyiv was not cordial, and Mr Orban urged Mr Zelensky to seek a ceasefire and speed up peace talks.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had captured a key district in the mountain settlement of Chasiv Yar, a small town in eastern Ukraine that has been at the center of heavy fighting for months.

The city, which has been razed to the ground by endless artillery shelling, is seen as a potential gathering point for Russian forces as they advance on the remaining Ukrainian-controlled areas in the Donetsk region.

Kyiv has not yet commented on the allegations.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military intelligence said it was responsible for the fire that broke out on a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea in April.

GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters that the agency had targeted the Serpukhov missile ship and was operating jointly with a pro-Kiev group called the Legion of Freedom of Russia.

“Through sabotage, we managed to ruin the ship from the inside and completely destroy communications and automation,” the Legion explained on its Telegram account.

Moscow claimed that Ukraine carried out three drone strikes on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Thursday. The plant’s Russian management said several workers were injured in the attack.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called the attacks “a threat to nuclear safety and human lives” and added that they must “stop.”

Kyiv has not yet commented on the allegations. The power plant has been under Russian control since March 2022 and has been subjected to frequent attacks, with both sides blaming each other.