Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that the country’s military had attacked a large Russian airfield in Dzhankoi in Rissian-occupied Crimea and thanked his top military commander for staging the strike.
“Thank you, warriors,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “Thank you for your accuracy. Thank you to commander-in-chief (Oleksandr) Syrskyi for organizing this operation.”
The president expressed thanks to servicemen for staging what he called “extremely significant” strikes against Russian equipment and combat infrastructure.
Dzhankoi lies in the northern part of the Crimea peninsula and was seized as part of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Unofficial sources in both Ukraine and Russia had earlier reported a series of explosions at the base.
At least 17 dead in Chernihiv
Also Wednesday, three Russian missiles slammed into the city centre of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people, wounding dozens more and damaging civilian buildings, officials said.
Zelenskyy called on Kyiv’s allies to rush in air defence support after the city, which had a pre-war population of 300,000, became the latest target of an intensifying Russian airstrike campaign.
“This would not have happened if Ukraine had received sufficient air defence equipment and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror had been sufficient,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Videos obtained by Reuters showed flames and columns of black smoke rising over Chernihiv, which is about 150 kilometres from the capital Kyiv and about 80 kilometres from the Russian border.
Three explosions ripped through a busy central area of the city just after 9 a.m. local time, destroying a hotel, officials said.
The strike also damaged several multi-storey residential buildings, a hospital, an education facility and dozens of private cars, officials said.
“Unfortunately, Russia continues to engage in terrorist activity against the civilians and civilian infrastructure as confirmed by this strike on Chernihiv once again,” acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako said on national TV.
Sixty people, including three children, were wounded, the emergency services said.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, attacked with three Iskander cruise missiles, regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
As civilians cleared up glass and debris with shovels near residential houses, local doctors urged residents to donate blood and city officials declared a day of mourning.
Ukraine broadcasters offline in cyberattack
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has launched thousands of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities and villages in attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday echoed Kyiv’s plea for more air defence before departing for a meeting with G7 counterparts in Capri, Italy.
“Stronger air defences are a matter of life and death for thousands of people in Ukraine and the best protection for our own security,” she said.
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Ukraine is facing an acute shortage of ammunition, including air defense systems and missiles, with vital funding from the U.S. blocked by Republicans in Congress for months and the EU failing to deliver munitions on time.
Russia has taken advantage of these delays in recent weeks, intensifying its attacks on Ukrainian cities, targeting the country’s power sector and other critical infrastructure.
One of the main Ukrainian media companies, 1+1 Media, said its satellite TV channels had suffered a cyberattack on Wednesday.
It said in a statement that 39 channels were affected and broadcasting is currently unavailable.
