Ukraine: At least 20 dead in Pryluky after a Russian cruise missile hits an apartment block; dozens of casualties across the country

At least 20 people, five of them children, were killed when a Russian cruise missile hit an apartment building in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, during Russia’s mass attack overnight into October 7, according to Ukrainian authorities. The number of injured in the city stands at 55, including seven children. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) was continuing search operations in the rubble.

Across Ukraine, Russian attacks over the past 24 hours killed at least 30 people and injured at least 138, according to the same reports. In Kyiv, three people were killed and eight injured, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, while in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported two dead and 40 injured. Dead and injured were also recorded in the Kirovohrad, Sumy, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, while a medical facility was hit in Kryvyi Rih.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia used ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and drones. Of 48 cruise missiles, 39 were shot down or neutralised by electronic warfare, and of 130 drones, 117. Five ballistic missiles were intercepted; the Air Force did not specify how many were launched. Strikes were recorded at 18 locations.

Later reports put the Pryluky toll higher: the SES said at least 22 people had died and at least 54 were injured, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The Russian attack came a few days after the Ukrainian drone strikes on the Moscow area, and Zelensky had warned that Russia was preparing a new mass strike.