KYIV (Reuters) – Russian shelling killed two civilians in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said in a video on the Telegram messaging app that a rescue operation was underway at the site and more people could be under debris.
City officials earlier said that Sumy, located about 30 km (19 miles) from the Russian border, had been hit by a Russian airstrike at about 12.10 pm (1010 GMT). They said a car servicing station, several houses, and an educational building were damaged in the attack.
But Zelenskiy, citing preliminary findings, later said Sumy had been struck by a multiple-launch rocket system.
“It is realistic to protect against it only by destroying Russian weapons, the Russian launch systems on Russian territory. That is why the ability to strike at Russian territory is so important for us,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukraine hit Russia with U.S.-produced ATACMS missiles twice over the last three days, adding that Moscow was preparing retaliatory measures.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is at a critical stage, with Moscow reported to be using North Korean troops and Kyiv using Western-supplied missiles to strike back inside Russia.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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