Rescuers were removing mountains of rubble on Thursday from the site of a lethal Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s historic city of Chernigiv, where at least 18 people were killed in an attack that has prompted fresh pleas for allies to boost Kyiv’s overstretched air defense systems.
Three Russian missiles crashed into the northern Ukrainian city on Wednesday, leaving pools of blood on the street at the scene of one strike, where rescue workers searched for survivors and carried away the wounded on stretchers.
The official death toll rose to 18 as of Thursday morning, with 77 people — including four children — injured, according to Ukraine’s emergency services department.
Chernigiv resident Olga Samoilenko told AFP she and her children found shelter in the corridor of their apartment building after the first missile exploded. “Our neighbours were already there. We started shouting for everyone to fall to the floor. They did. There were two more explosions. Then we ran to the parking lot,” the 33-year-old said.
Mayor Oleksandr Lomako said more than a dozen buildings had been damaged in the attack, while other officials said dozens of vehicles and medical and educational facilities were also damaged. A 25-year-old policewoman on sick leave was among those killed after suffering a severe shrapnel injury, the interior minister announced.
Chernigiv lies around 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and had a pre-war population of around 285,000 people.
The city was badly damaged when Russian tanks swept into Ukraine from Belarusian territory in February 2022 and besieged the city until April of that year.
