Ukraine grieves after Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia

At least 23 people are dead after a missile strike in the Ukrainian city Vinnytsia destroyed buildings, including a medical centre.

The aftermath after a deadly missile strike in Vinnytsia.

The aftermath after a deadly missile strike in Vinnytsia. Source: AAP / Liapin Oleksandr

A Ukrainian city far from the frontline is grieving for those killed by a missile strike, including a four-year-old girl, as Russian bombardment continued to rain down on towns across the country.

Ukraine said Thursday's strike on an office building in Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200km southwest of Kyiv, had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.
Kyiv said the attack killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens more.

The missiles destroyed a nearby medical centre and some people arriving for treatment were burned alive in their cars outside, the owner of the centre said.

Two doctors were severely wounded.

The attack was the latest in a series of Russian hits in recent weeks using long-range missiles on crowded buildings in cities far from the front, each killing dozens of people.



Late on Friday, Russian missiles hit the central city of Dnipro, killing three people and wounding 15 others, governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on social media.

Eight people were killed and 13 injured in a string of shellings in 10 locations in the eastern Donetsk region, its regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in a television interview.

"Right now, as I am writing this address, there is an air alarm over almost the entire territory of our state. There is preliminary information about hits - Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Kyiv region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

Memorial for the dead

In Vinnytsia, residents placed teddy bears and flowers at a makeshift memorial to those killed in Thursday's attack.

Among the dead was Liza, a four-year-old girl with Down syndrome, found in the debris next to a pram. Images of her pushing the same pram, posted by her mother on a blog less than two hours before the attack, quickly went viral.
Her severely injured mother, Iryna Dmitrieva, was being kept in an information blackout at a hospital for fear that finding out about her daughter would kill her, doctors said.

"She is suffering from burns, chest injuries, abdominal injuries, liver and spleen injuries. We have stitched the organs together, the bones were crushed as if she went through a meat grinder," Oleksandr Fomin, chief doctor at the Vinnytsia Emergency Hospital, said.
Were she told of her daughter's death, "we would lose her", he added.
The building housed an officers' club, which Russia's defence ministry said was being used for a meeting between military officials and foreign arms suppliers.

Ukraine said the club functioned as a cultural centre. The building also housed shops, commercial offices and a concert hall, where musicians were rehearsing for a pop concert planned for that night.

Authorities in the southern city of Mykolaiv, closer to the frontlines, also reported fresh strikes on Friday which wounded at least two people.

Despite the bloodshed, both sides have described progress towards an agreement to lift a blockade restricting the export of Ukrainian grain.
Mediator Turkey has said a deal could be signed next week.

Russia's defence ministry said an agreement was close, but Moscow's negotiator cautioned that a grains deal would not lead to a resumption of peace talks.

A deal would probably involve inspections of vessels to ensure Ukraine was not bringing in arms, and guarantees from Western countries to exempt Russia's own food exports from sanctions.

Moscow welcomed a written clarification by Washington on Thursday that banks, insurers and shippers would not be targeted by sanctions for facilitating shipments of Russian grain and fertiliser.

The stepped-up Russian attacks on cities far from the front come at a time when momentum appears to be shifting after weeks of gains for Moscow.

Since capturing the eastern industrial cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in battles that killed thousands of troops on both sides, Russia has paused.

A Ukrainian general said not "a single metre" of territory had been lost in a week.

Ukraine says it is preparing a counter-attack to recapture a swathe of southern territory near the Black Sea coast.

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4 min read
Published 16 July 2022 1:46pm
Updated 16 July 2022 1:59pm
Source: Reuters

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