7 Killed in Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian Town, Officials Report

On Saturday, Russian forces launched missiles at Vilniansk, a town near the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The attack resulted in the deaths of seven people, including two children, and injured 31 others, according to officials. Images from the scene show the body of a local resident and a damaged grocery store building.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy once again urged allies to supply Ukraine with more long-range weapons and better air defenses to counter what he described as daily assaults on the country.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, stated that two missiles hit the town, causing damage to infrastructure, a shop, and residential buildings.

Emergency services confirmed the death toll at seven, including two children, and reported that 31 people were injured, eight of whom were children. Firefighters extinguished fires in several buildings and completed rescue operations.

Zaporizhzhia Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov described the attack as a “dreadful terrorist act against the civilian population” in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. He noted that the attack occurred in the middle of the day, on a non-working day, in the town center where people were relaxing and there were no military targets.

President Zelenskiy shared photos from the site, showing a large crater, downed trees, and tarpaulins spread out on what appeared to be a park. He emphasized that Ukrainian cities and communities suffer daily from such Russian strikes but suggested ways to counter these attacks. Zelenskiy called for the destruction of Russian missile launchers, the use of long-range capabilities, and an increase in modern air defense systems in Ukraine.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to requests for comments on the incident. However, in a post on Telegram, the ministry claimed its missiles had struck a nearby area in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Ukrainian trains were unloading arms and military equipment. The post, which included a photo of a strike, identified the site as the village of Ukrainka, less than 10 km (six miles) from Vilniansk.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts from either side.

In the Donetsk region, further east, the governor reported that one person died in two shelling incidents in the city of Kurakhove. Officials also reported that two people were killed in the Kherson region, which is partly occupied by Russian forces in the south.

Rescue teams continued to work at an apartment building in the central city of Dnipro, which was badly damaged in a missile strike on Friday. That attack killed one person, injured 13, and left several others missing.