Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed on Sunday a stern retaliation to the Russian missile strike in the centre of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv that killed seven people and wounded over a hundred others the day before.
“I am sure our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly,” Zelenskyy said in a video address published in the early hours of Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden, his first foreign trip since attending a NATO summit in Lithuania last month.
He named a six-year-old girl, Sofia, as among the dead in the attack and confirmed that the wounded included 15 children.
The governor of the Chernihiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus, said on Sunday that the total number of people wounded had risen to 148.
Further east, Russian forces shelled the city of Kupiansk on Sunday morning, seriously wounding a man, according to Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
Meanwhile, in Russia, five people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a train station in the city of Kursk, regional Gov Roman Starovoit said early on Sunday.
Kursk is the capital of the western region of the same name, which borders Ukraine.
According to Starovoit, the drone crashed into the roof of the railway station building, with a fire subsequently breaking out on the roof.
Russian air defence jammed a drone flying towards Moscow early on Sunday causing it to crash.
Russia's Defence Ministry called it "an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack”.
Nerve centre for Russian fleet targeted in missile strike
Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports briefly suspended flights, but no victims or damage were reported.
Ukrainian authorities, which generally avoid commenting on attacks on Russian soil, didn’t say whether it launched the attacks.
Drone strikes on the Russian border regions are a fairly regular occurrence.
Drone attacks deeper inside Russian territory have been on the rise since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.
Successful strikes have exposed the vulnerabilities of Moscow’s air defence systems.
