Eight killed in overnight Russian strikes, as Ukraine downs bomber

Russian strikes on Ukraine in the early hours of Friday killed at least eight people, including two children, as Kyiv 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 Kyiv, 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 US House of Representatives is gearing up for a crucial weekend vote on a long-stalled $61 billion package of military aid for Kyiv that could deliver much-needed weapons to Ukrainian soldiers struggling on the front lines.

In a boost for their forces, Kyiv 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.