Seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed when a Russian missile struck a theatre in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday morning, officials have said.
Fifteen children were among 144 people wounded, the police said. At least 25 people were in hospital.
Among the victims were people who had been celebrating an Orthodox Christian holiday at church.
A main square and a university building were also damaged in the attack.
The UN called it “heinous”, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed a firm response by Ukrainian soldiers to a “terrorist attack”.
Chernihiv is located about 50km (31 miles) south of Ukraine’s border with Belarus. It was besieged by Russian troops in the first few months of President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
The city’s imposing theatre was hit directly. Tiles were blown off the roofs of neighbouring buildings with one catching fire 100 metres away.
The theatre was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers, the acting mayor of Chernihiv told the BBC.
“I understand that their aim was a military event taking place in the building of the drama theatre and that it was their target,” Oleksandr Lomako said.
“But it is clear that the Russians launching those missiles and those giving them orders in the middle of the day to the civilian city realised that the victims will be primarily civilians.
“There is no other way to interpret it than a war crime against civilians, yet another Russian war crime,” he added.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko later said all those inside the theatre had managed to reach shelter in time.
He said that “most of the victims were in their vehicles or crossing the road at the time of the rocket strike, as well as returning from a church”.
The city centre of Chernihiv is a popular area for people to stroll around, especially on the weekend, locals told the BBC.
Anna Zahreba, the manager of a Crimean Tatar restaurant just across the street from the theatre, said her staff were getting ready for a busy day when the missile hit.
“I ran outside to see what was going on,” she said. “There were two 12-year-old girls here and a lot of blood. One had her leg badly wounded. Another girl was screaming.
“We applied a tourniquet and waited for an ambulance. It was taking a long time to get here, but some man stopped his car and we took a girl to a hospital.”
Anna says staff rushed to help injured people with medical kit and blankets.
“There are always many people walking around here, with children and baby strollers. Many restaurants and cafes in the area,” she tells us.
“We did not expect a day like this.”
In his video address late on Saturday, President Zelensky said the child killed in the Russian strike was a girl named Sofia.
Earlier, he said that Russia had turned an “ordinary Saturday” into “a day of pain and loss”.
The UN said it was “extremely disturbed” by the attack.
“It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to the church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians,” Denise Brown, the current head of the UN in Ukraine, said in a statement.
“Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she said. “It must stop.”
Three days of mourning have been announced in the city.
Moscow is yet to comment.
Elsewhere, Russia has claimed that a Ukrainian drone hit a military airfield in the northwest Novgorod region, causing a fire that was quickly put out.
One plane was damaged but no casualties have been reported, it added.
Ukraine has not commented on the alleged drone attack.
Meanwhile, Kyiv’s air force said the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike. (BBC)
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