On Wednesday morning the center of the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, about 50 kilometers from the border with Belarus, was hit by three Russian missiles: at least 17 people were killed and about 60 injured. This was stated by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. The number of deaths reported by Ukrainian authorities has already increased several times in the hours following the attack, and it is possible that it will continue to increase.
For weeks the Ukrainian authorities have been repeating that their air defenses are reducing, making civil and energy infrastructure more vulnerable to Russian attacks: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the attack on Chernihiv «would not have happened if Ukraine had received a sufficient number of air defense systems.” The United States has not approved sending more weapons to Ukraine for several months, due to opposition from some Republican Party lawmakers. Recently, however, Germany announced that it would send more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, which are among the most sophisticated air defense systems available to the West.
Chernihiv, the capital city of the region of the same name, was occupied by Russian troops at the beginning of the invasion of the country in 2022, but after two months it was liberated by the Ukrainian army.
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