Fourteen people killed as Russian missiles strike city in Ukraine

Three Russian missiles hit a downtown area of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday. The missiles hit an eight-floor apartment building and at least 14 people were killed.

At least 61 people, including two kids, were hurt in the attack this morning, according to Ukrainian emergency services. Chernihiv is a city about 150 kilometers north of the capital, Kyiv. It’s close to the border with Russia and Belarus and has about 250,000 people living there.

Russia bombed Ukraine recently, as the war continued for three years. Ukraine is not getting enough help from Western countries, so it is vulnerable to Russia’s larger forces.

During the winter, Russia didn’t make big progress on the 1,000-kilometer front line. They mainly focused on wearing down the enemy through prolonged fighting. But Ukraine doesn’t have enough artillery ammunition, troops, and armored vehicles. This has allowed the Russian military to slowly move forward, according to military experts.

An important thing for Ukraine is that Washington hasn’t yet approved an aid package of about $60 billion for them. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he will try to push the package through this week.

Ukraine really needs help right now, according to a think tank in Washington called the Institute for the Study of War.

“The ISW said that Russia is changing their tactics in battle because they haven’t received enough military help from the United States, and are using more movement in their fighting instead of staying in one place. ”

Ukraine needs help from the U. Sto keep their position secure. “help, especially with air defense and artillery, that only the US can give quickly and in large amounts,” it said.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asked Western countries to give his country better air protection, like more Patriot missiles. He said the attack in Chernihiv could have been prevented if Ukraine had better air defense and if the world was more determined to stop Russian aggression.

Zelenskyy said in an interview with PBS that Ukraine didn’t have any more air defense missiles left when it was being attacked with missiles and drones. The attack destroyed one of Ukraine’s biggest power plants, and it’s part of Russia’s recent plan to target energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the President’s request for more assistance will be repeated as he gets ready to go to a meeting with foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries in Italy.

“We want to get seven more Patriot batteries to keep our cities and economic centers safe from being destroyed,” Kuleba said in an interview with a German newspaper. “Why is it hard to find seven Patriot batteries. ”

Ukrainian soldiers are making strong defenses and building walls to get ready for a big attack from the Russian army. Officials in Kyiv think the attack could happen as soon as next month.

Ukraine is using far-flying drones and missiles to attack Russian forces and disrupt their war plans.

The Russian army said that they shot down a Ukrainian drone in Tatarstan on Wednesday. In April, Ukraine attacked the same area in Russia that is 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) away from Ukraine.

Ukrainian people who make drones have been making the weapons able to go farther.

Another drone from Ukraine got shot down in the Mordovia region, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Moscow, the ministry said. That is 700 kilometers or 430 miles away from the border of Ukraine.

One hour before the Mordovia attack, the civil aviation authority in Russia stopped flights at airports in two big cities, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, because they were worried about safety.

Unconfirmed reports say a Ukrainian missile hit an airfield in Crimea that is controlled by a different country. Russian and Ukrainian officials didn’t say for sure that there was an attack, but the local government closed the road to the airfield for a little while. The local mayor said that an explosion shattered the windows of a mosque and a private house in the region, as reported by Russian news agency Tass.