The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said Russian missiles hit into the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing 17 people including two children and wounding many.
It said residential buildings, administrative and office premises had suffered significant damage and destruction. The Ukrainian military said the attack on Vinnytsia was carried out with Kalibr missiles fired from a submarine in the Black Sea.
About 90 people sought medical attention and around fifty (50) of them were in a serious condition following the attack, which also destroyed a medical center. The police said the attack involved three missiles.
“What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
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Photographs posted online by the State Emergency Service showed gray smoke rising later from the twisted remains of burnt-out cars and smoldering rubble.
Video footage showed thick black smoke billowing out of a tall building and sirens blaring as emergency workers rushed to the scene.
Russia which invaded Ukraine on February 24, denies its forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and denied deliberately targeting civilians.
The Kremlin says it is engaged in a “special military operation” to demilitarise Ukraine and root out what it regards as dangerous nationalists.
The Russian defense ministry has not comment on the reports from Vinnytsia.
Vinnytsia lies about 200km southwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and is far from the war’s main frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine.
