MYKOLAIV, Ukraine, March 29 – A Russian missile hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 33, authorities said.
The injured were pulled out of the rubble by rescue workers who are still on site, the emergency service said in an online post.
Footage from the state emergency services showed a gaping hole in one side of the building as firefighters were putting out a fire where the missile struck and the wounded were being placed on gurneys.
A bloodstain was seen in the rubble, and offices inside the building had broken glass and upturned furniture on the floor.
“It’s just a nightmare. A girl died on my floor. What can I say? Are you kidding? I hugged her, two minutes passed and she died,” said a woman who was helped out of the building by rescuers.
“They destroyed half of the building and hit my office,” regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Russian forces have attacked Ukraine’s southern ports, including Kherson, Odessa, Mykolaiv and Mariupol, as they attempt to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea and establish a land corridor from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula captured by Russia in 2014.
Kim said the strike had one upside – he suggested Russia had given up trying to take over the city.
Russia is calling its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbor. She denies targeting civilians and has not commented on the attack on Mykolayiv.
Ukraine and the West say Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched an unprovoked invasion.
Describing the strike, Natalia Novikova, 57, an employee of the local government’s health department, said: “It was so loud that people were very scared. Then the (air raid) sirens went off.”
Reporting by Natalie Thomas and Pavel Polityuk; writing by Matthias Williams; Edited by Timothy Heritage, Janet Lawrence and Jonathan Oatis