A Russian missile attack on President Zelensky’s hometown killed one police officer and injured at least 52 others. Civilians were rescued from the rubble of their destroyed homes.
The attack on Kryvyi Rih damaged ten buildings in the center and east of the country after a wave of Russian attacks overnight.
Three of the people rescued from the rubble were in serious condition. Photos showed smoke billowing from the ruins of a building as rescue workers carried an injured person to an ambulance.
In an aftermath picture, a group of men tugged at concrete foundations to uncover a police officer, whose face was bloodied from the blast. Other photos show wrecked cars covered in debris and firefighters searching through the rubble.
Three administrative buildings and seven residential buildings, including a high-rise building, were damaged in the attack, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
Rescuers and police officers work to extricate a police officer from the rubble at the site of a Russian missile attack as Russia attacks Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukraine, September 8, 2023
Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile attack as Russia attacks Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukraine on Friday
The police administration building was destroyed and rescue workers pulled several people from the rubble, Ihor Klymenko, the Ukrainian interior minister, said on Telegram.
A Russian airstrike today killed three civilians and wounded four others in the village of Odradokamyanka in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Three people were also injured in a rocket attack in the eastern city of Sumy.
According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, one person was injured in a Russian rocket attack on the city of Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine.
Moscow also this week conducted its fifth drone attack on the southern Odessa region, home to Ukrainian Black Sea and Danube ports used for exporting grain and other agricultural products.
Rescuers and police officers carry a person extricated from rubble to a site of a Russian missile attack Friday in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, as Russia attacks Ukraine
A view shows the compound of a local police headquarters badly damaged by a Russian missile attack in Kryvyi Rih in the Dnepropetrovsk region on Friday amid attacks on Ukraine
A local man tries to put out burning buildings at the site of a Russian missile attack
Russia has stepped up airstrikes on Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure on the Danube and the port of Odessa since mid-July, when Moscow canceled the United Nations-brokered deal that allowed safe Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea.
Officials said air defenses shot down 16 of the 20 drones launched by Russia overnight. According to the southern military command, 14 drones were shot down over the Odessa region and two more over the southern Mykolaiv region.
Oleh Kiper, the regional governor of Odessa, said a non-residential building was damaged by debris from a drone, but gave no further details. He reported no casualties in the area.
Also on Friday was the funeral of an 18-year-old who was among 16 people killed in a Russian attack on a market in Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday.
The attack, which injured 33 other people, devastated the market and overshadowed a two-day visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at assessing Ukraine’s three-month-old counteroffensive and announcing another billion in additional U.S. support to signal US dollars (801 million pounds) in aid.
Britain announced today that it will host a global food security summit in November in response to Russia’s withdrawal from a Black Sea grain deal and attacks on Ukraine’s grain supplies.
A view shows destroyed cars on the grounds of a local police headquarters that was heavily damaged by a Russian missile attack during Russia’s attack on Ukraine in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, September 8, 2023
Firefighters respond to the scene of a rocket attack in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, central Ukraine, September 8, 2023
The announcement came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in India for a Group of 20 summit where he plans to mobilize international resources to counter the impact of the war on global food supplies.
Sunak’s government said Royal Air Force planes would fly over the Black Sea to stop Russia from attacking cargo ships carrying grain from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia is holding local elections in the part of the Kherson region it controls.
Local elections are also taking place in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions.
In Kherson, residents and Ukrainian activists reported that election workers accompanied by armed soldiers made house visits.
Ukraine has rejected the elections, calling on its allies to condemn Russia’s actions and urging them not to recognize any government created by the vote.
A destroyed school in the frontline town of Orichiv, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine, on September 7, 2023
Zelensky said today that Russian air superiority “stopped” Kiev’s counteroffensive and complained about the slow pace of both Western arms shipments and sanctions against Russia.
Ukrainian officials expressed frustration over criticism of the speed of their counteroffensive.
“If we are not in heaven and Russia is there, they are keeping us out of heaven.” “They are stopping our counteroffensive,” Zelensky said, calling for “more powerful and far-reaching” weapons.
Kiev has repeatedly asked for aircraft to fight the Russian invasion, but many of its Western allies have been reluctant.
Ukraine has complained for weeks about the slow process of getting U.S.-made F16s to improve its Soviet-era fleet.
Weapons deliveries to Kiev and new rounds of sanctions against Russia would become “more complicated and slower,” he added.
Ukraine relied on Western arms supplies to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive this summer.
A Ukrainian soldier walks near a destroyed Ukrainian tank near the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on August 25, 2023, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues
A Ukrainian soldier operates an FPV drone from his frontline positions as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, near the village of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, August 25, 2023
It was acknowledged that the advance was slow due to the heavily mined area.
But Kiev has also been able to report some successes recently.
It declared a strategic victory last week with the capture of the southern village of Robotyne that would pave the way for forces to push deeper toward Moscow-annexed Crimea.
Zelensky on Thursday singled out military units in the east and south for their fighting, and military officials reported some breakthroughs in Bakhmut and near the village of Robotyne.
Russia said today it repelled numerous Ukrainian attacks along the front line and inflicted hundreds of casualties on enemy forces, questioning Kiev’s claim that Ukraine is making slow but steady progress in its counteroffensive.
Russia controls about 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and part of eastern and southern Ukraine, which it took control of in 2022.