In a Russian attack on the centre of Chernihiv on Thursday 29 October, two 15-year-old girls were killed, and according to the regional administration head Viacheslav Chaus, 25 people were injured, including four children. On Friday 30 October the city is observing a day of mourning.
The strike happened during the day, when the streets were crowded. Chaus said Russia used a Banderol cruise missile launched from a drone. Shops, residential buildings and cars were destroyed or damaged, and some vehicles caught fire, according to Ukrainska Pravda, among others. Euronews, which described video footage from the site, cites local military authorities, who said this type of weapon was used.
The toll: injuries kept rising
The figures changed throughout the day. At first, a few injured were reported, then 15, then 23. According to Ukrinform, Chaus later wrote of 25 injured, among them four children: a 10-month-old girl, a 10-year-old girl, and boys aged 16 and 17. A brother and sister are in critical condition.
Kyiv Post, citing the Chernihiv city council, later reported 27 injured. The difference reflects successive updates, and the final toll may still change.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, in fact Ihor Vyhivskyi, wrote on Telegram that it was an attack on an ordinary street. According to Interfax-Ukraine, he said there was "no military justification" for it.
Day of mourning
The Chernihiv city council declared a day of mourning on Friday 30 October for residents killed in Russian attacks between 21 and 29 October. This follows an order issued on 29 October, reported by Ukrinform. Earlier, on 23 October, one person was killed and 18 injured in an attack on the city.
The rest of Ukraine’s "Thursday"
Chernihiv was not the only target. According to Vyhivskyi, Russian strikes also hit Dnipro and Kremenchuk, where three people were killed in the latter city. Kyiv Post summed up the day as an attack that killed 20 people across the country and injured at least 109. These are data from a service collecting information from local authorities and may still be updated.
Meanwhile, as Euronews reports, a local US-brokered ceasefire is holding in the Kherson region around occupied Oleshky. Human rights ombudspersons of Ukraine and Russia said on Wednesday that no incidents had occurred for more than 30 hours. The truce is meant to enable demining and open humanitarian corridors for about 2,000 residents. President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the pause, stressing that civilian evacuation will be key.
What it means
Chernihiv lies about 60 km from the border with Belarus and is regularly attacked. For readers in Poland, this is above all another report of civilian victims, including children. As of publication, no Polish citizens have been reported among the injured. Russia has not responded to the allegations in the sources we used.
