Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 28, with 20 dead in a single apartment block in Pryluky
The death toll from Russia's latest wave of attacks on Ukraine has risen to 28. Most victims died in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, where a missile destroyed a five-storey residential building.
Ukraine's interior minister, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said the toll from Russia's latest attack has reached 28. Moscow hit Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones on Wednesday.
Twenty killed in Pryluky
The worst losses occurred in Pryluky, in northern Ukraine's Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile flattened a five-storey apartment building. Regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus said 20 people died, five of them children. Local officials said about 55 people were wounded in the town.
Rescuers with shovels and an excavator combed through the rubble, as several sections of the block had collapsed. Using ladders, emergency workers reached the upper floors and worked their way down, bringing out 15 survivors.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strike as one of Russia's "most vile", saying the Russians had wanted to hit painfully and demonstratively.
On Wednesday evening, Kyiv prosecutors reported that falling drone debris killed two people in a suburb of the capital.
Attacks on ports and ships
Russia's defence ministry said its forces struck a vessel heading for the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa carrying cargo for the Ukrainian military. It also said drones hit infrastructure in Ukrainian ports, without giving further detail.
Bulgarian president Iliana Yotova on Wednesday blamed Russia's war for worsening security in the Black Sea. Early on Tuesday, a drone attack hit two ships in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea; one sank and the other was damaged. The crew of the damaged vessel were rescued, while the crew of the sunken one remain missing. Bulgaria has halted its search. Yotova did not directly blame Russia but said the war had caused a significant deterioration in security for commercial shipping in the region.
New EU sanctions
European Union envoys approved 1,646 new designations under the bloc's Russia sanctions regime, three EU diplomats said. Most target Russia's military-industrial complex, and more than half of the newly listed entities and individuals are involved in the production chain for Russia's ballistic missiles.
