7 Killed and Dozens Wounded After Missiles Slammed Into a Town in Southern Ukraine, Officials Say

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles slammed into a town in southern Ukraine, killing seven civilians, including children, and wounding dozens, local authorities reported.

Ukrainian officials published photos of bodies stretched out under picnic blankets in a park in Vilniansk, and deep craters in the blackened earth next to the charred, twisted remains of a building.

At least 38 people were wounded in Saturday evening’s attack, authorities said, and declared a day of mourning Sunday. Vilniansk is in the Zaporizhzhia region, less than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the local capital and north of the front lines, as Russian forces continue to occupy part of the province.

Local Gov. Ivan Fedorov said that three children were among the dead and nine more were among the 38 wounded.

He said the strike damaged a shop, residential buildings, and an unspecified “critical infrastructure” facility in Vilniansk, which had a population of around 14,300 prior to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

In the aftermath of the Vilniansk attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Kyiv’s Western partners to bolster its air defenses and long-range munitions to deter Russian attacks.

In Ukraine’s war-torn eastern Donetsk region, eight civilians died and 14 were wounded overnight, according to Gov. Vadym Filashkin, as near-daily shelling continues in much of the province.

Russian-appointed officials in Donetsk, which is partially occupied and illegally annexed by Moscow, said that Ukrainian shelling on Sunday wounded a 4-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl. According to Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, four of its staff also came under shelling Sunday as they attempted to put out a fire in the Kremlin-occupied local capital, also called Donetsk.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday claimed its forces captured two more villages in the eastern region, as they seek gains in an apparent bid to draw Kyiv into a war of attrition.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian shelling killed one civilian and wounded five more on Saturday and overnight in the southern Kherson region, its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, reported on Telegram.

According to Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, four people were wounded in the northeastern province, the site of fierce battles in recent months following Russia’s cross-border push that threatened Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday reported its forces overnight shot down three dozen Ukrainian drones over six regions in Russia’s southwest. It later said that a total of 72 were downed on Saturday and during the night.

Debris from one drone fell on a village in the Kursk region, blowing out windows and damaging roofs and fences, according to a Telegram post by regional Gov. Aleksey Smirnov. In the city of Lipetsk, farther north, a drone was shot down as it appeared to target the industrial zone, local Gov. Igor Artamonov reported. There were no casualties in either case.

In a separate attack Sunday afternoon, a drone struck a private home in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, wounding a man and woman inside, according to local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.