At least 14 people were killed and more than 60 injured in a triple Russian strike on Wednesday in Cherniguiv, a large city in northern Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelensky once again blamed the lack of aid from the West.
“The death toll from the missile strikes rose to 14 dead,” said the Interior Ministry, reporting “more than 60 injured,” including children. It risks getting even worse, with six people missing.
According to the ministry, “social infrastructure, an educational institution, a hospital” and sixteen residential buildings were damaged.
Ukraine: deadly strikes in Cherniguiv / Sylvie HUSSON, Laurence SAUBADU, Jean-Michel CORNU / AFP
AFP journalists on site saw the most affected building, a hotel, parts of which were completely destroyed. Firefighters were working through the rubble using a crane.
Many ambulances and fire trucks were visible at the scene as well as tents set up by police and rescuers. Cars parked near the epicenter had windshields destroyed.
President Zelensky stressed that Ukraine did not have enough air defenses to prevent this attack, undoubtedly the deadliest against this historic city located about sixty kilometers from the border with Belarus, ally of Russia, and about a hundred kilometers north of kyiv.
“This would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to resist Russian terror had been sufficient,” the Ukrainian leader insisted on Telegram.
Because Russia bombards Ukrainian cities daily with explosive missiles and drones, particularly its energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian frustration
Faced with Western aid, particularly American aid, which is running out of steam, Ukraine is faced with a growing lack of means to intercept these devices.
It is therefore desperately urging its partners to deliver more weapons and anti-aircraft defense systems.
Rescuers clear the rubble of a building destroyed following a Russian missile attack in Cherniguiv, Ukraine, April 17, 2024 / Sergiy BUTKO / AFP
The allies’ reluctance has particularly frustrated kyiv after a massive Iranian air attack on Israel this weekend was successfully repelled, notably thanks to Western military support, while a crucial package of American aid to Ukraine has been blocked for months in the American Congress.
President Zelensky cited the example of a large thermal power station near kyiv, completely destroyed by Russian missiles on April 11 due, he said, to a lack of ammunition for the anti-aircraft defense supposed to cover it.
Map of areas controlled by Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine as of April 16, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. GMT / Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER / AFP
“There were 11 missiles flying. We destroyed seven of them. The remaining four destroyed the Trypillia power plant. Why? Because we had zero rockets. We were running out of rockets to protect Trypillia,” he said. he launched in an interview published Tuesday.
In Cherniguiv, “three explosions occurred” at 9:03 a.m. local (07:03 GMT), the mayor said earlier on Wednesday on television.
The governor of the Cherniguiv region said the attack had hit “almost” the city center.
The rubble of a building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in Chernigiv, northern Ukraine, April 17, 2024 / Sergiy BUTKO / AFP
Cherniguiv, one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, founded more than 1,000 years ago, had around 300,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion in February 2024. It was heavily bombed by the Russian army at the start of this offensive and part of the region had been occupied for several weeks.
Russian base attacked in Crimea
On the Russian side, military bloggers and media reported a Ukrainian strike during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday on the Russian military base of Djankoi, in the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Alleged videos of the attack, posted on social media, show impressive explosions in the middle of the night.
According to the Rybar Telegram account, close to the Russian army and followed by more than a million people, 12 ATACMS tactical missiles delivered to kyiv by the United States could have hit this target, damaging equipment and a building. “According to a high probability”, they were fired from the Ukrainian region of Kherson.
kyiv and Moscow have not yet officially commented.
Finally, providing a new minimum estimate of Russian losses, the independent Russian site Mediazona and the BBC Russian service said they had identified by name, based on public information, more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since the start of the invasion. from Ukraine two years ago.
The Russian side does not communicate its losses. For his part, the Ukrainian president admitted in February the deaths of 31,000 soldiers.
