Russia scores double hit with missile attack on Chernihiv theater

KYIV — Russia’s missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv at the weekend not only killed seven people and injured 120, it also scored a second hit for the Kremlin by stoking internal anger against drone-makers, who are accused of turning the city into a target with a security blunder.

On a bright holiday morning, as Ukrainians were returning from church on Saturday after celebrating the Apple Feast of the Savior — a harvest festival of the Orthodox church — a Russian Iskander-type ballistic missile exploded over the theater in the center of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, only some 70 kilometers from the border with Russia.  

At least seven killed in Russian strike on theatre in centre of Chernihiv

At least seven people were killed and 144 injured in a “vile” Russian missile strike that hit a theatre and a central square in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.

“I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. “A notable response.”

A six-year-old girl named Sofia was among the dead, Zelenskiy said, and 15 of the injured were children. Fifteen others were police officers, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road, or returning from church when a missile hit the city’s landmark Drama Theatre, he said.