Eight people were killed after the industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk was bombed from the air by Russia early on Friday, Ukrainian authorities said, but there was some success for Kiev with a Russian supersonic bomber reportedly shot down.
Ukraine, which has called for additional weapons from Western allies to fend off Kremlin forces, is being targeted by Russian missiles almost every night as Moscow tries to up the ante after months of frontline stalemate in the two-year conflict.
At least two people were killed and fifteen injured in the regional capital Dnipro, Governor Serhiy Lysak announced via Telegram.
A five-story residential building was hit and the state railway said rail facilities were targeted. The main station in Dnipro was closed and long-distance trains were diverted.
Six people – including two children – were also killed in the town of Synelnykove after several family homes were hit, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
A factory was also damaged in Pavlohrad and an infrastructure building in Kryvyi Rih, officials added.
According to Lysak, the air defense system over Dnipropetrovsk was able to shoot down nine Russian missiles, but others got through.
Since Soviet times, Dnipro and other cities in the region have been home to the Ukrainian defense industry.
In the south, the Dnipro River is the war’s southern front line and Russian forces had shelled the Nikopol district across the river with artillery, Lysak added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Dnipro on Friday, from where he wrote on Telegram: “We are working with our partners to provide Ukraine with additional air defense systems.”
He also visited a command post near the disputed town of Khasiv Yar on the eastern front in the Donetsk region – and presented medals to soldiers.
Chasiv Yar, not far from Bakhmut, which was captured by the Russians almost a year ago after heavy fighting, is considered the next target of the Kremlin military after a protracted invasion that began in February 2022.
Hundreds of kilometers away in the southwestern part of the country, the port city of Odessa was attacked with missiles from the Black Sea, the Ukrainian air force said.
Local military administrator Oleh Kiper said the attack damaged port infrastructure and injured one person.
According to regional media reports, several powerful explosions sounded throughout the city. Later, thick smoke rose from the site of the attack.
Earlier on Friday, Russia’s air force acknowledged it had lost one of its Tupolev Tu-22M supersonic heavy bombers, but said the crash was due to technical reasons. Ukraine, on the other hand, said it had shot down the plane.
Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers shared spectacular but unverified videos on social media that allegedly showed the long-range bomber spinning in mid-air while its engine was on fire.
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, announced that this was the first time such an aircraft had been successfully shot down with a missile.
Both parties’ claims could not be independently verified.
In a dig at the West, which he accuses of being slow to supply weapons, especially air defense systems, Zelensky later wrote on Telegram that the airspace over Ukraine could be as well defended as the airspace over Israel if foreign partners provided more weapons would deliver.
