Russian attack wounds 20, including children in Ukraine’s Dnipro

A Russian air raid on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has wounded 20 people, including five children, according to officials.

Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Saturday that three of the children were in “serious condition” following the attack on a residential district.

A total of 17 people were being treated in hospital, he added on Telegram.

Media reports said emergency teams had pulled four people from under rubble in the area known as Pidhorodnenska.

Lysak said another child was likely still trapped.

Reports on social media said a Russian missile caused the explosion and that an emergency services building was also hit.

There was no confirmation of a missile strike from Ukrainian military officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also writing on Telegram, said the explosion occurred between two residential buildings.

“Unfortunately, there are people under the rubble,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Once again, Russia proves it is a terrorist state.”

Moscow denies its military forces target civilians.

Pictures posted on social media showed rescue teams working at a shattered, smouldering building amid piles of twisted building materials.

Russian air raids over Ukraine have ratcheted up in recent weeks as have incursions in the opposite direction.

Russian officials said on Saturday that Ukrainian shelling killed two people in Belgorod, a border region that has been hit by repeated attacks this week. The latest deaths bring the overall toll in Belgorod border villages to seven this week.

Kyiv has for months said it is preparing for a major counteroffensive against Moscow’s occupation forces as it looks to reclaim territory lost since Russia invaded in February 2022.