24 hours of carnage in Ukraine as Putin exploits defence missile shortage

A man weeping near the site of a missile strike in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine (Picture: EPA)

Vladimir Putin is exploiting Washington’s reluctance to send defence missiles to Ukraine.

Away from the front lines, Russia has launched wave upon wave of indiscriminate attacks on residential areas, power stations and shopping centres across Ukrainian cities.

At least 18 people have been killed in an assault on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, prompting renewed calls for air defence help from Western allies.

Alina Mykolaets, a police officer who was at her home on sick leave, is among the victims.

A rescuer works with a dog at the site of a destroyed building (Picture: Reuters)

Another 78 were wounded when missiles slammed into the city centre at about 9am on Wednesday, while six people were missing as rescuers clear up the rubble.

Mayor Oleksandr Lomako said three explosions ripped through a busy part of the city.

People ran from a bus to take cover, while emergency services and medics rushed to the site of the attack, Ukrainian officials said.

It was Russia’s deadliest airstrike in weeks, causing further carnage to a city, which had been recovering after past attacks.

Police officers stand next to a body of a killed person (Picture: Reuters)

Multiple buildings were destroyed in the assault (Picture: AP)

A video shared on Telegram shows the destruction at a gynecology clinic that had just been rebuilt after having been bombed by Russia in 2022.

Shattered glass can be seen strewn across hospital beds and doors blown off their hinges.

‘Those bastards. We had just rebuilt it,’ a Ukrainian woman can be heard cursing in the background.

On Thursday morning, further explosions rocked an area near the central city of Dnipro.

Police officer Alina Mykolaets died in her apartment

Large plumes of grey smoke rose into the sky moments after the missile attack, reportedly launched from the border city of Rostov, in Russia.

Ukraine is facing a shortage of ammunition, with funding from the US blocked by Republicans in Congress for months and the EU failing to deliver munitions on time.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has for months warned that Ukraine lacks the air defences necessary to protect its skies.

‘This would not have happened if Ukraine had received a sufficient number of air defense systems and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror had been sufficient,’ he said.

Rescue workers concluded on Thursday morning (Picture: Reuters)

‘The Ukrainian determination is sufficient. There must be equally sufficient determination from our partners and, as a result, sufficient support.’

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also urged member nations to send their anti-missile systems to bolster Ukraine’s air defences. 

He told reporters at a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the island of Capri: ‘We have Patriots, we have anti-missile systems.

‘We have to take them (out) from our barracks where they are just in case and send them to Ukraine to Ukraine where the war is raging.

‘Otherwise the electricity system of Ukraine will be destroyed. And no country can fight without having electricity at home, in the factories, online, for everything.’

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