By Tom Balmforth and Anastasiia Malenko
kyiv/DNIPRO, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine shot down a Russian strategic bomber 300 km (185 miles) from its border on Friday after the warplane took part in an airstrike that killed at least eight people, including two children, in the center of Dnipropetrovsk. region, kyiv said.
Missiles fell on the town of Dnipro and its surroundings early in the morning, damaging residential buildings, the main train station and injuring at least 28 civilians, regional officials said.
Russia has stepped up long-range air attacks against Ukraine’s energy system and other targets in recent weeks, increasing pressure on kyiv, far behind the front lines, where Russian forces are slowly advancing in the east.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on kyiv’s allies to urgently supply air defense systems as Ukraine’s stockpiles dwindle due to a slowdown in vital Western military aid.
“Russia must be held accountable for its terrorism, and every missile, every Shahed (drone) must be shot down,” he said. “The world can guarantee it and our partners have the capabilities.”
In a first for Ukraine during the invasion, Kiev’s air force commander and military spy agency said they shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber that had fired missiles at Ukraine during the night attack.
The warplane, they said, was flying over Russian airspace 300 km from the Ukrainian border.
An intelligence source told Reuters that kyiv used a modified S-200 air defense missile in the attack, but did not say where it was fired from. The S-200 is a Soviet-era long-range surface-to-air missile system.
Unconfirmed social media footage showed a warplane with its tail on fire, spiraling toward the ground.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the bomber crashed in the Stavropol region of southern Russia, hundreds of kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory, while returning to its base after carrying out a combat mission.
But the accident appears to have been caused by a technical malfunction.
The four Russian Air Force crew members were ejected from the warplane; two were rescued, one died and a rescue operation is underway for the fourth, the Russian regional governor said.
RESIDENTS IN SHOCK
Civilians at an affected residential building in Dnipro said they were shaken. The top floor of the five-story building was partially destroyed, authorities said. Firefighters battled to put out a blaze early in the morning.
“My wife and daughter are in shock. They say they won’t return to the apartment and asked me to evacuate them somewhere because they won’t be able to stay here anymore,” said resident Serhii. .
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 15 missiles, including two Kh-22 cruise missiles and 14 drones, overnight.
Air defenses shot down 11 of 16 missiles and nine of 10 drones that attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal estimated the death toll at eight. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said a 14-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy were killed.
“The Dnipropetrovsk region has survived hell. But who do the Russians want to break with their missiles? No one can unite around a common tragedy like the Ukrainians do,” said Lysak, the governor.
Russia denies targeting civilians in its airstrikes and says the energy system is a legitimate target, but hundreds of civilians have been killed in airstrikes.
State-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said Russia targeted its infrastructure in the attack and one of its employees was killed.
(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko, Yuliia Dysa and Mykhailo Moskalenko; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Gerry Doyle, Philippa Fletcher and Alex Richardson)
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