Eight killed in overnight Russian strikes, as Ukraine downs bomber

KIEV

<p>This handout photograph taken and released by State Emergency Service of Ukraine on April 2, 2024, shows firefighters working to extinguishing a fire that authorities said has been damaged during a missile strike, in the eastern city of Dnipro</p>

Russian strikes on Ukraine in the early hours of Friday killed at least eight people, including two children, as Kiev said it shot down a Russian strategic bomber for the first time.

Moscow said a military plane had crashed over the south of the country while returning to base from a combat mission after suffering a technical malfunction.

The downing of a Russian bomber used to fire cruise missiles at Ukraine would be a highly symbolic win for Kiev, which has been pounded by hundreds of overnight Russian aerial strikes since Moscow invaded more than two years ago.

The latest overnight Russian strikes on the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least eight people and injured more than a dozen, officials said.

The head of the region Sergiy Lysak said medics had been able to save a six-year-old boy earlier reported killed, revising down an earlier toll of nine killed.

Strikes hit the region's Synelnykivsky area, where at least two children — aged six and eight — were among those killed, and the regional capital of Dnipro, the interior ministry said.

Interior Minister Igor Klymenko published photos showing emergency workers carrying injured people away on stretchers.

  Life-saving air defence 

Ukraine's railway operator said train facilities were targeted in the attack and that seven employees were among those wounded. A female member of staff — survived by two teenage children — was killed, they added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky in response to the strike repeated calls for Ukraine's Western allies to more supply air defence systems.

"Every country that provides air defence systems to Ukraine, every leader who helps persuade our partners that air defence systems should not be stored in warehouses but deployed in real cities and communities facing terror, and everyone who supports our defence is a life saver," Zelensky said.

He also announced he had visited troops and inspected fortifications in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces have taken advantage of Ukraine's manpower and ammunition shortages and steadily gained ground.

In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives is gearing up for a crucial weekend vote on a long-stalled $61 billion package of military aid for Kiev that could deliver much-needed weapons to Ukrainian soldiers struggling on the front lines.

In a boost for their forces, Kiev said it had downed a Russian long-range strategic bomber during a combat mission for the first time.

The Tu-22M3 was returning to its base in Russia after having fired missiles at Ukraine earlier in the night, the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's defence ministry said.

  Shot down 

Russian officials said the plane crashed over the southern Stavropol region. They said the pilots had ejected but that at least one member of the crew had died.

"According to preliminary data, the cause of the accident was a technical malfunction," state news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.

Stavropol governor Vladimir Vladimirov said two crew members had been taken to a local medical centre.

"The search for the fourth pilot is continuing," he added, posting photos of the burnt-out and mangled fuselage of the plane in a field.

The plane crashed in the region's Krasnogvardeysky district, the governor said — around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the eastern edge of the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's defence ministry said it "was shot down at a distance of about 300 kilometres from Ukraine. As a result of the hit, the bomber was able to fly to the Stavropol area, where it crashed."

Ukraine's air force said Friday that Russia had launched 22 missiles and 14 Iranian-designed attack drones overnight — including from the downed strategic bomber.

It said all the unmanned aerial vehicles were downed as well as 15 missiles.

Russian strikes have pummelled towns and cities across Ukraine since the beginning of Moscow's invasion more than two years ago. A missile attack on the northern city of Chernigiv left 18 dead earlier this week.