Ukrainian minister says Russian strikes killed 28 across Ukraine

• Ukraine’s interior minister put the death toll from Wednesday’s attacks at 28, across four cities.
• In Pryluky, a missile struck a residential block; the reported toll there rose to 20, including five children.
• Local reporters spoke to residents whose relatives were trapped and to a survivor who escaped the damaged building.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a lower nationwide toll of 25. ^{1 2 3}

Residents gathered beside the ruined five-storey block in Pryluky as rescuers searched the rubble for missing relatives. One woman told Suspilne Chernihiv that her sister had answered the phone to say they were trapped. Anwar, a resident of the building, said he escaped through a window and helped rescuers reach a child. ³

By 18:30, regional police had reported 19 deaths in Pryluky, including five children, and 55 people injured. Later, the Kyiv Independent reported at least 20 dead, while Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said 20 people had been killed in the city, five of them children. He said rescue workers and police had pulled 29 people from rubble or evacuated them from damaged buildings; the clearance operation was still under way. ^{3 2 1}

Vyhivskyi said the attacks had killed 28 people across Pryluky, Kremenchuk, Oleksandriia and Kyiv. Zelenskyy separately put the nationwide toll at 25 and said about 100 people had been wounded. The figures differ; the minister’s later statement included two people killed in an evening attack on Kyiv. ^{1 4}

The attack struck multiple regions overnight and into Wednesday. Zelenskyy had warned on Tuesday that intelligence pointed to preparations for a large Russian strike. The Associated Press reported that Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted industrial facilities involved in producing and storing missiles and drones. That statement does not establish the intended target of the strike that hit the Pryluky residential block. ⁵

Footnotes

1. Interfax-Ukraine, quoting Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. The Kyiv Independent, updated report on the Pryluky strike ↩ ↩²

3. Suspilne Chernihiv, reporting from Pryluky ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Interfax-Ukraine, quoting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ↩

5. Associated Press, report on the attacks and Russia’s stated account ↩