Children among 9 injured by Russian missile strikes on eastern city, Ukrainian officials say

Two children were among nine people injured when Russian missiles hit two buildings the central city of Dnpiro late Friday, Ukrainian officials said.

Blaming the attack on “Russian missile terror,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that a building belonging to Ukrainian Security Service was hit along with a modern 12-story apartment building.

“We will do everything to bring Russia to full punishment for aggression and terror against our people,” he added. 

Alongside images showing part of one building reduced to rubble and debris strewn in the street below, Regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said in a Telegram post that two children aged 14 and 17 were injured. Seven others, including two 20-year-old women were also injured, he said.

“Doctors say that everything is satisfactory,” he added. “Will be treated at home.”

Dnpiro Mayor Borys Filatov said on his own Telegram channel that the destruction around the buildings was “extensive” and that authorities would work to dismantle debris and assess the losses. 

He said that the missiles which struck were Iskanders — short range ballistic missiles which can travel up to 310 miles. NBC News could not independently verify this claim.

Filatov added that both buildings were largely empty and the residential building was scheduled for sale.

Russia, which began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, says it does not target civilian sites.

It did not immediately comment on the strike which came a day after after the Kremlin accused Kyiv of firing two missiles at a city southern Russia. 

The Russian defense ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian missile above Taganrog, about 24 miles east of the border with Ukraine. Debris fell on the city, the ministry added, alleging the missile was part of a “terror attack” by Ukraine. Officials in the city reported that 20 people were injured.

Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s secretary of the national security and defence council, blamed Russian air defence systems for the explosion.

In a later post on Friday, Russia‘s Defense Ministry said it downed a second Ukrainian missile near the city of Azov, which like Taganrog is in the Rostov region. It added that debris fell in an unpopulated location.

Elsewhere, prominent Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said in a Telegram post that an explosion had hit a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, around 850 miles northwest of Taganrog.

Security services had detained the person behind the refinery explosion as he was trying to leave Russia, he said. Describing the suspect as “an employee” at the refinery, Khinshtein added that he had previously “moved to Russia from Ukraine.”