CHERIHIV: Seven people including a 6-year-old child were killed and 90 wounded when a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place, the ministry said, adding 12 of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers.
“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on a working visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram.
“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he added.
A short video accompanying Zelensky’s post showed debris scattered across a square in front of the regional drama theater, where parked cars were heavily damaged. The video also briefly showed a body slouched inside a car.
Chernihiv is a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 km (90 miles) north of the capital Kyiv. The interior ministry said the roof of the drama theater had been destroyed in the strike.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the front line with missiles and drones as part of the invasion it launched in February last year.
Kyiv’s air force said early on Saturday the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.
Seven killed, 90 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city of Chernihiv
https://arab.news/cajs6
Seven killed, 90 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city of Chernihiv
- Kyiv says Iranian-made Shahed drones were used in the aerial assault
- People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place
Chile wildfires leave 19 dead amid extreme heat as scores evacuated
- Fast-moving wildfires being worsened by intense heat, winds
- Firefighters battling 23 active blazes spreading toward cities
CONCEPCION, Chile: Wildfires in Chile have left at least 19 people dead, authorities said on Monday, as the government carried out mass evacuations and fought nearly two dozen blazes exacerbated by intense heat and high winds.
While weather conditions overnight helped control some fires, the largest were still active, with adverse conditions expected throughout the day, security minister, Luis Cordero, said at a news briefing on Monday.
“The projection we have today is of high temperatures,” Cordero said, and the main worry was that new fires would be triggered throughout the region.
Parts of central and southern Chile were under extreme heat warnings with temperatures expected to reach up to 37 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit).
STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN NUBLE, BIO BIO
As of late Sunday, Chile’s CONAF forestry agency said firefighters were combating 23 fires across the country, the largest of which were in regions of Ñuble and Bío Bío, where President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe.
Over 20,000 hectares (77 square miles) have been razed so far, an area about the size of Seattle, with the largest fire surpassing 14,000 hectares on the outskirts of the coastal city Concepcion.
The fast-moving blaze tore through the towns of Penco and Lirquen over the weekend, destroying hundreds of homes and killing several people, with authorities still assessing the damage.
HEAT, BLAZES ALSO IMPACT ARGENTINA
Authorities are currently battling the fire as it threatened Manzano prison on the edge of Concepcion and the town of Tome to the north.
Both Chile and Argentina rang in the new year with heat waves which have continued into January. Earlier this month, wildfires broke out in Argentina’s Patagonia, burning around 15,000 hectares.
