Seven dead and dozens injured after rocket hits southern Ukraine town, officials say

KIEV, Ukraine – Russian missiles struck a town in southern Ukraine, killing seven civilians, including children, and injuring dozens more, local authorities reported.

Ukrainian officials released photos of bodies sprawled under picnic blankets in a Vilnius park and of deep craters in the blackened earth next to the charred, twisted remains of a building.

The attack on Saturday evening wounded 36 people, authorities said, and declared Sunday a day of mourning. Vilnius is in the Zaporizhia region, less than 30 kilometers from the capital and north of the front line as Russian troops continue to occupy part of the province.

Local governor Ivan Fedorov said three children were among the dead and nine others were injured.

In a separate Telegram post a few hours earlier, Fedorov said the attack damaged a store, residential buildings and an unspecified “critical infrastructure” facility in Vilnius, a city with a population of about 14,300 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia continues to deploy its Ukrainian troops in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer-long front. Moscow has stepped up its air strikes to deplete Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

Following the attack on Vilnius, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Kyiv’s Western partners to strengthen their air defences and long-range munitions to ward off Russian attacks.

Eight civilians died and 14 others were injured in Ukraine’s war-torn eastern Donetsk region on Saturday and overnight, the region’s governor Vadym Filashkin said, while shelling continues almost daily across much of the province. During the same period, one civilian was killed and five others wounded in the southern Kherson region, the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Telegram.

Four people were injured in Kharkiv province in northeastern Ukraine, according to local governor Oleh Syniehubov, where fierce fighting has broken out in recent months as Russia launched a cross-border advance that threatened Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its armed forces shot down three dozen Ukrainian drones over six regions in southwestern Russia overnight.

Debris from a drone fell on a village in the Kursk region, shattering windows and damaging roofs and fences, according to a Telegram post by regional governor Alexei Smirnov. In the city of Lipetsk further north, a drone was shot down as it apparently targeted an industrial zone, local governor Igor Artamonov reported. There were no casualties in either case.