UNITED24
- A Russian missile struck a central square in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine.
- The strike left 144 wounded and 7 dead, including a 6-year-old girl.
- The city's theater, which was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers, was hit directly.
A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has killed at least seven people and injured at least 144, Reuters reports. Fifteen children are among the injured, and a 6-year-old girl named Sofia was killed.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram said that most victims were crossing the road, returning from church, or in vehicles when a missile hit the city's landmark Drama Theatre. "Saturday festive morning. People left the church with baskets of consecrated apples," he said.
Chernihiv, a city of 285,00 people, is far from the frontline in northern Ukraine.
A video posted by UNITED24Media shows the terrifying moment the powerful Russian Iskander ballistic missile hit the civilian building. They can carry conventional and nuclear warheads up to 1,550 pounds.
"I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.
Oleksandr Lomako, the mayor of Chernihiv, told national media: "There is a park right behind the drama theater. Many children and their parents usually spend time there. There are numerous restaurants with outdoor terraces located nearby as well. It all happened in the middle of the day when obviously there are many people in the city center. This crime cannot be interpreted except as a war crime against civilians."
REUTERS/Vladyslav Savenok
Lomako told the BBC that the theatre was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers. "I understand that their aim was a military event taking place in the building of the drama theatre and that it was their target," he said.
"But it is clear that the Russians launching those missiles and those giving them orders in the middle of the day to the civilian city realized that the victims will be primarily civilians."
"Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law," she said in a statement. "It must stop," said Denise Brown, the head of the UN in Ukraine.