Russia condemned after seven die in Ukraine blast

Russia has been slammed for a “heinous” attack that killed seven people, including a child, and wounded 100 more in northern Ukraine.

A Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv killed seven people and wounded more than 100 on Saturday, in what the United Nations called a “heinous” attack hours after President Vladimir Putin met Moscow’s top army commanders.

A six year old child was reportedly among the dead.

“It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians,” said Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Ukraine.

She was referring to the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord which saw some in Chernihiv attending church services in the morning.

“I condemn this repeated pattern of Russian strikes on populated areas of Ukraine, Ukrainian … Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she added.

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike in Chernihiv, on August 19, 2023. Picture: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP.

Chernihiv, 150 kilometres north of Kyiv towards Belarus, has been largely spared from major attacks since the first months of Russia’s invasion as fierce fighting rages in the east and south.

The Russian army marched through the city when it invaded Ukraine through Belarus in February 2022, before being repelled by Kyiv’s forces.

Saturday’s strike came after Putin held talks with top Russian generals in a rare trip to operational hub Rostov-on-Don and as his Ukrainian nemesis, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Sweden for talks with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

A man sitting next to the body of a person at the site of the strike. Picture: National Police of Ukraine / AFP

‘Pain and loss’

“As of 3:25pm (local time on Saturday), 117 people were injured in the terrorist attack on the centre of Chernihiv, seven of them died,” Oleksandr Lomako, Chernihiv’s acting mayor, said on Telegram.

Viacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv region’s military administration, said on Telegram that a child was among the dead.

Mr Zelensky said the attack hit a square that houses a “polytechnic university, a theatre”.

“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he said after his arrival in Sweden.

AFP reporters saw fire trucks outside the Taras Shevchenko Drama Theatre and Music Academy, which suffered some damage.

“There was smoke, screams, people were running, crying, moaning. We ran to the shelter when everything happened and sat there,” Iryna, a 24-year-old bartender in Chernihiv, told AFP.

“I’m still a little in shock, because this hasn’t happened in a long time, everyone has relaxed a little. But now we will probably be going down to the shelter.”

Ukraine’s culture ministry said the centre of Chernihiv, a city with a thousand-year history, is a candidate for nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

“Russia, as a terrorist country, is systematically destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage,” it added in a statement.

Law enforcement officers arrive at the site of the strike. Picture: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP

Putin meets military top brass

Hours earlier, the Kremlin said Putin had travelled to the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Moscow’s hub for its operations in Ukraine, to meet his top generals in a rare trip close to combat zones.

Moscow gave no details of when the meeting took place, but footage released by state media indicated it was at night.

Putin “listened to briefings by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, commanders of directions and other senior officers of the group”, the Kremlin said.

A video published by the RIA Novosti news agency showed Putin, wearing a suit, stepping out of a jeep in the dark and being greeted with a handshake by Gerasimov, in military attire.

Gerasimov is seen leading Putin down a corridor decorated with portraits of Russian military men and of the president chairing a meeting with army chiefs.

Rostov-on-Don was also the scene of a dramatic armed mutiny by Wagner mercenaries in June, which saw them briefly take over the army HQ in Rostov, before halting their rebellion.

Gerasimov, who Wagner wanted to unseat, has rarely been seen in public since.

One of the more than 100 injured people walks off the site after the strike. Picture: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)

Drone attacks

Kyiv said it had shot down more than a dozen Russian drones in an overnight attack.

And the Russian army said it had thwarted Ukrainian attacks on Crimea as well as attempted drone strikes on a military airfield in the northwestern Novgorod region, Moscow and its region.

A day earlier, Russian forces destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and the Black Sea Fleet.

Both sides have reported regular drone incursions as Ukraine presses a counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-held territory.

On the battlefield, Russia’s army said it had “eliminated” 150 Ukrainian troops that tried to cross the Dnipro River into Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, a day after admitting sabotage groups were operating in the area.