Ten killed and 40 wounded in heavy Russian attack on Ukraine, officials say

Ten people were killed in a heavy overnight Russian missile and drone attack that struck a residential tower block in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

Another 40 people were wounded in the overnight strikes on Ukraine that targeted energy and transport infrastructure, forcing emergency power cuts in a number of regions in frigid temperatures.

The upper floors of the residential building in Ternopil were torn away in the attack. Black smoke poured upwards, while an orange glow burned though the haze from a fire in the tower block.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles in the overnight attack, officials said. Poland, a NATO member state bordering western Ukraine, temporarily closed Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast of the country and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution to safeguard its airspace.

ZELENSKIY CALLS FOR MORE PRESSURE ON RUSSIA

All the 10 dead were in Ternopil, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Twelve children were among 37 injured there, he added.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed multi-storey residential buildings had been hit in Ternopil, and said others may be trapped under the rubble.

He urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, including by providing Kyiv with more air-defence missiles.

"Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this," he said on X.

Energy officials said energy infrastructure had been struck in seven Ukrainian regions. A Reuters witness in the western city of Lviv reported hearing explosions.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear but restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country.