Twenty killed in Ukraine’s Ternopil as Russia attacks apartment block overnight

At least 20 people were killed in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil and dozens more were injured across the country as Russia launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, Russian drones struck two nine-storey apartment blocks in Ternopil, sparking a fire in one and destroying several floors in the other. 

Twenty people were killed and 66 people — including 16 children — were wounded, with efforts to rescue people trapped under the rubble ongoing. Authorities in the city said the attack had caused a sixfold increase in chlorine levels in the air and urged residents to remain indoors with their windows closed.

“[Russia’s] goal remains unchanged: more civilian casualties, more destruction, more pain”, Klymenko said.

Sharing images of the destruction on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had also carried out a “massive” strike on energy facilities, transport and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, which Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said had left 46 people injured.

On Wednesday morning, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had attempted to attack Voronezh in southern Russia on Tuesday afternoon with four US-made ATACMS missiles, all of which were intercepted by air defence forces. The ministry claimed the missiles had been launched from the city of Balakliya, in the Kharkiv region.

In total, Russia launched over 470 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine in the overnight assault, Zelensky said, injuring three people in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region and one person in the eastern Donetsk region. 

The Lviv region in the west of the country, the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in the north, the Dnipro region in the east, the Mykolayiv region in the south and the central Cherkasy region also came under attack, he added. Ukraine’s Air Force issued continued air raid alerts for attacks across the country through the night and into Wednesday morning.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this,” Zelensky said, adding that “the top priority is air defence missiles, additional systems, expanded capabilities for our combat aviation, and drone production to protect lives”.

The strikes came just hours after Zelensky arrived in Turkish capital Ankara, where he said he would present Kyiv’s proposals on how to “reinvigorate negotiations” on ending the war.

While the Kremlin said no Russian representatives would be travelling to Türkiye, Axios reported on Tuesday that the US had been “secretly working” in consultation with Russia to draft a new plan to end the war.