Ukraine Reports 22 Deaths Following Russian Missile Strike in Pryluky

Rescue operations continued in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky on Thursday after a residential building was struck by a Russian missile, resulting in a death toll of 22, including five children, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. The missile strike occurred on Wednesday in the Chernihiv region and also left 54 individuals injured, seven of whom were children. Rescuers managed to pull 15 survivors from the debris, including one child. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that a cruise missile directly hit the building located approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. This strike was part of a broader Russian missile and drone assault on Kyiv and several other regions on the same day, which coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday. Zelensky remarked in a video address, "This is the kind of ‘gift’ Putin gave himself for his birthday: the killing of children, the killing of people." He also cautioned that Russia is likely to increase its missile and drone attacks as winter approaches. In response to the ongoing conflict, Ukraine’s energy company DTEK reported that the national grid operator Ukrenergo had implemented emergency power outages in Kyiv, which are distinct from the regular rolling outages scheduled nationwide. The conflict has seen both Russia and Ukraine engaged in long-range aerial warfare while their ground forces remain largely in a stalemate more than four and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion. Additionally, late Wednesday, Russian drones targeted Kyiv’s Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts, resulting in further casualties. In Obolonskyi, a drone strike in a courtyard between apartment buildings led to two deaths and seven injuries, including a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. In Desnianskyi, a drone hit a residential building, killing two women and injuring five others, including girls aged 1 and 6.