Russia says five people have been killed in a Ukrainian attack in the western Kursk region.
Ukrainian officials earlier reported that Moscow had launched a new missile attack on Kiev, damaging a building housing several embassies.
In Russia, the acting governor of the Kursk region said that in addition to the dead, nine more people had been taken to hospital after the attack on the city of Rylsk.
Alexander Khinshtein said a cultural center, a fitness complex, a school and houses were damaged during the strike, which took place at 3:30 pm local time (12:30 GMT) on Friday.
Russian officials previously reported six deaths, including a child, in Rylsk, about 25 km from the Ukrainian border.
But in an audio message on Telegram on Saturday morning, Khinstein provided the latest update, saying there had been five fatalities.
‘There were no children among them [killed]” he said.
Ukrainian forces still control parts of the Kursk region after launching a surprise cross-border offensive in early August.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the Russian attack on Kiev had affected the diplomatic missions of Albania, Argentina, North Macedonia, Palestine, Portugal and Montenegro. It is unclear whether the building they lived in was directly targeted by the Ukrainian capital.
At least one person was killed and nine others were injured in the attack that damaged a number of buildings in the city, the Ukrainian military said. It is not believed that any of the embassy diplomats were injured.
In a verified video filmed in the Pecherskyi district, Kiev’s second oldest Roman Catholic church, St. Nicholas Cathedral. is shown with windows shattered after a nearby explosion.
The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 65 drones and missiles across the country overnight, most of which were shot down.
A man in Kiev, who said he owned a restaurant that suffered extensive damage as a result of the attack, was filmed cursing Russians as “animals” as he surveyed the charred shell of a building in front of him.
The video was widely shared on social media.
Ukrainian police inspect rubble at St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Kiev [EPA]
Oksana, another resident, sent the BBC photos of her destroyed apartment, with the windows blown out and glass and brickwork strewn across the floors.
“I don’t understand how I survived,” she said.
“My balcony flew away, half my walls are gone. My neighbor is so shocked she can’t even talk. I have no words for the people who did this.”
A local journalist on the scene told the BBC that one of the buildings nearby had been used by the Ukrainian security service, the SBU, and had likely been the target of the attacks, although much of the damage observed by the BBC was the residential buildings .
In a statement confirming the attack, Russia’s Defense Ministry said missiles were launched at an SBU “command post” in response to an attack on a chemical plant in Russia’s Rostov region two days ago.
But there is also speculation in Kiev that Friday’s attack could be linked to Tuesday’s killing in Moscow of a Russian general, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.
Friday’s attack comes a day after Vladimir Putin’s year-end press conference and phone show, in which he threatened to launch more ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian capital.
There are concerns in Ukraine that Russia could use a so-called Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile to hit Kiev. Moscow fired a missile at the central city of Dnipro earlier this month.
Earlier on Friday morning, Ukrainian authorities issued an air raid alert over the possible launch of an Oreshnik missile, urging people in Kiev to urgently seek shelter. It turned out to be a false alarm.
[BBC]
