Ukraine-Russia war latest: Children killed while they slept among 25 dead in ‘vile birthday present’ for Putin
Russia pounded Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones in one of its most “vile strikes” on Wednesday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, killing at least 25 people, including five children, injuring another 100 and damaging industrial facilities and energy infrastructure.
The heaviest death toll was in Pryluky in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile obliterated a five-storey residential building.
Noting that the attacks coincided with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s birthday, he said: “This is the kind of birthday present that Putin gave himself: the killing of children, the killing of people.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has ignited fresh tensions with France after claiming that a test launch of a nuclear-capable missile was part of a “dead end” strategy to confront Russia.
French president Emmanuel Macron hailed the test of the submarine-launched ballistic missile off the coast of Brittany as a message “sent loud and clear for wherever it must be received”, without mentioning Russia directly.
Pushing back, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “They are building their identity in the field of defence and security on the basis of confrontation with the Russian Federation. This is a dead end path. As history shows, it leads to nothing good.”
