.-') _      .-') _  
                      ( OO ) )    ( OO ) ) 
          .-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
         '  .--./ |   \ |  |\ |   \ |  |\  
         |  |('-. |    \|  | )|    \|  | ) 
        /_) |OO  )|  .     |/ |  .     |/  
        ||  |`-'| |  |\    |  |  |\    |   
       (_'  '--'\ |  | \   |  |  | \   |
          `-----' `--'  `--'  `--'  `--'
       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       /
       
       Russian strike kills at least 18 as Ukraine’s air defenses struggle
       again to protect cities
       
       By Svitlana Vlasova, Sebastian Shukla and Christian Edwards, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       5:45 AM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
       
       Source: CNN
       
       A Russian missile strike killed and injured nearly 100 people in the
       city of Chernihiv in northern – an attack that could have been
       prevented if Ukraine was provided with better , President Volodomyr
       Zelensky said.
       
       At least 18 people were killed in Wednesday’s strike and 78 others
       were injured, including two children, Ukrainian officials said. Search
       and rescue operations were completed Thursday, with 37 people still in
       hospital.
       
       Three missiles hit the outskirts of Chernihiv, north of the capital
       Kyiv, at about 9 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, damaging an
       eight-story building, a four-story building, a hospital and a higher
       education institute, Ukrainian officials said. CNN has geolocated the
       eight-story building as the Hotel Profspilkovyi.
       
       Video from inside the hospital showed shattered glass strewn across
       hospital beds and doors blown off their hinges as staff evacuated the
       smoke-filled corridors. Another video showed civilians taking cover
       next to a bus stop as smoke rose in the distance and another missile
       struck the buildings.
       
       Among those killed was 25-year-old police lieutenant Alina Mykolayets,
       who was fatally wounded by shrapnel. She had been at home on sick leave
       when Russia attacked, Chernihiv police said.
       
       Russia’s strike comes after Zelensky has for months warned that
       Ukraine lacks the air defenses necessary to protect its skies.
       
       “This would not have happened if Ukraine had received a sufficient
       number of air defense systems and if the world’s determination to
       counter Russian terror had been sufficient,” Zelensky said.
       
       “The Ukrainian determination is sufficient. There must be equally
       sufficient determination from our partners and, as a result, sufficient
       support.”
       
       In an interview with PBS NewsHour that aired Monday, Zelensky said
       Ukraine had to thwart a Russian airstrike that last week the biggest
       power plant in Kyiv region.
       
       The strikes that destroyed the Trypilska power plant demonstrated in
       its bid to blow apart Ukraine’s power grid, pummeling plants
       unprotected by air defenses with dozens of drones and missiles at a
       time.
       
       In a bid to bolster Ukraine’s depleted military, Zelensky on Tuesday
       signed into law a key piece of legislation overhauling the country’s
       mobilization rules. The law requires all men between 18 and 60 to
       register with Ukraine’s military and to carry their registration
       documents on them at all times.
       
       But the law did not contain provisions for demobilizing soldiers who
       have spent long periods fighting.
       
   DIR  <- back to index