DNIPRO: A Russian missile attack in southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday killed at least 17 people and caused sweeping damage, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Kyiv’s allies at a Nato summit to bolster Ukraine’s defence industry.

The two-part strike killed 15 and wounded more than 200 in the regional capital Dnipro, said governor Serhiy Lysak, where a blast wave showered scores of train passengers with broken glass. Among the wounded were at least 18 children, he added.

The rare daytime strike also damaged dozens of apartment buildings and educational facilities among other sites, according to Mayor Borys Filatov, who said the attack caused an “unprecedented amount of destruction” in the city.

Two people were also killed in the town of Samar, around 10 km from Dnipro, Lysak said, adding that an infrastructure facility was damaged.

“This is not a fight where it’s hard to choose a side,” he wrote on X in response to the strike. “Standing with Ukraine means defending life.” Zelensky was also expected to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit.

Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, particularly its capital Kyiv, where 28 people were killed on June 17 in the deadliest such attack this year.

Another 10 people were killed in air attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region on Monday.

After Tuesday’s attack on Dnipro, stunned residents surveyed a badly damaged apartment building and battered cars. At a nearby church, windows were blown out and scattered across the altar. Priest Serhii Narolskyi said he had been holding a service at the time of the attack, which was preceded by an air raid alert.

“It happened in a split second. You opened your eyes, and there were no windows or doors anywhere,” he said. “Everything was in a half-destroyed state.”

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2025