Six people, including one child, were killed on Friday in a Ukrainian missile attack on the town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region, the acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein, said. The attack came after a Russian missile strike killed at least one person in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
In Kursk, 10 wounded people, including a 13 year old, were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, Mr Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.
“What happened today is a huge tragedy for all of us,” he said. “We grieve together with the families of the victims. No one will be left without support.”
He said that those responsible for the attack would receive “well-deserved retribution”.
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Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said Moscow would raise the issue of the missile strike at a later meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, the Tass state news agency reported.
Earlier Mr Khinshtein said Ukraine had fired US-supplied Himars rockets, damaging several buildings including a school, recreation centre and private residences in Rylsk, located 26km from the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region.
An unconfirmed earlier report by the Mash Telegram channel, which is close to Russian law enforcement, put the death toll at seven. The channel published unverified video showing damaged buildings and cars on fire in a city street.
Ukrainian troops still hold part of Kursk region after a surprise incursion on August 6th.
Mr Khinshtein accused Kyiv of deliberating targeting civilians in the strike. Both Ukraine and Russia regularly accuse the other of attacking non-combatants, and both deny it.
Earlier, a Russian missile strike killed at least one person and damaged a historical cathedral, six embassies and other buildings across the Ukrainian capital during the morning rush hour on Friday, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s air defences shot down all five Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles used by Russian forces to attack the capital, the air force said.
Photographs from the site showed the wrecked roof of an office block with blown-out windows in central Kyiv and firefighters extinguishing flames after a car was heavily damaged on the street below.
Kyiv city military administration said 12 people had been wounded, including five who had been taken to hospital.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Portugal, housed in the same building, were damaged as a result of the strike. There were no casualties among diplomatic staff, it said.
“This is another barbaric attack by Russia on civilian targets that shows no willingness for peace,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.
The Russian defence ministry said it had struck a command centre used by Ukraine’s SBU security service, a site which it said was involved in the designing and construction of missiles and a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.
“The goals of the strike have been achieved. All targets have been hit,” the ministry said, casting the strike as response to Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s Rostov region with western missiles.
Reuters was unable to verify the reports by either side.
The Russian strike also damaged St Nicholas Cathedral, “a monument of national significance”, Ukraine’s minister for cultural affairs, Mykola Tochytskyi, said on X.
Ukraine’s air force said it also shot down 40 out of 65 drones launched by Russia across the country overnight, with a further 20 drones failing to reach their targets.
Russian troops also targeted Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson with various types of weapons during early morning, killing one person and wounding nine others, the regional governor said. Energy facilities were damaged causing power cuts for up to 60,000 consumers, he added.
Russia has been carrying out air strikes on Kyiv and other targets, particularly energy infrastructure, as its forces advance in the industrial Donbas region on eastern Ukraine before expected peace efforts next year.
Amid concern in Kyiv that Donald Trump could cut US support for its war effort when he returns to the White House next month, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the US president-elect on Thursday to ally with Europe to stop Russia. – Reuters