Three missiles launched from a Russian submarine deployed in the Black Sea have killed at least 21 people, including three children, and injured another 100 this Thursday in the city of Vinnytsia, as reported by the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. The town of 300,000 inhabitants and capital of the homonymous region is located in the central west of Ukraine, far from the front line (further east), so it was lived with a certain tranquility despite the war.
According to preliminary data, the Russian missiles hit an office building and the explosions also affected official compounds in the area, several nearby residences and a medical center. The explosions, up to four according to various sources, caused a fire in the area that spread to a nearby parking lot and that has burned, so far, fifty cars, according to sources.
Rescue service operators are working in the area to extinguish the fires and try to help the victims. A high command of the firefighters gives up all hope of finding survivors under the rubble. According to the police, the whereabouts of at least 15 people are unknown. The images captured on the ground show a scene of desolation: remains of smoking buildings and inert bodies on the ground.
“This is the act of Russian terror…” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented in a remote speech at an international conference to prosecute war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, at a briefing in Kyiv, described the attack as “further evidence of genocide.” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia on Twitter of committing “another war crime”.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the Vinnytsia reports. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, denies deliberately targeting civilians and says its forces have not committed war crimes.
