Seven killed, 90 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city of Chernihiv

Firefighters walk next to the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre damaged by a Russian attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (AP)

Both sides in the conflict – which started in February 2022 – have recently reported regular drone incursions by air and sea, as Ukraine enacts a counteroffensive aimed at reclaiming Russian-held territory. (AFP)

• Kyiv says Iranian-made Shahed drones were used in the aerial assault
• People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place

CHERIHIV: Seven people including a 6-year-old child were killed and 90 wounded when a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place, the ministry said, adding 12 of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers.
“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on a working visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram.
“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he added.
A short video accompanying Zelensky’s post showed debris scattered across a square in front of the regional drama theater, where parked cars were heavily damaged. The video also briefly showed a body slouched inside a car.
Chernihiv is a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 km (90 miles) north of the capital Kyiv. The interior ministry said the roof of the drama theater had been destroyed in the strike.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the front line with missiles and drones as part of the invasion it launched in February last year.
Kyiv’s air force said early on Saturday the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.