Russia attacked many towns in Ukraine from the air, including Kyiv, killing at least 12 people. Officials say that ten people, including a child, were killed in an attack on a block of apartments in the centre city of Uman.
The mayor of the city of Dnipro said that a woman and her 3-year-old daughter were killed also killed. Kremenchuk and Poltava were also said to have had explosions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the apartment block was one of 10 homes in Uman that were injured. The state emergency service said that the child who died in the city was born in 2013. They also said that 11 other people needed to go to the hospital.
Mr. Zelensky said that the killings showed that the rest of the world needed to do more to stop Russia.
“Weapons can stop evil, and that’s what our protectors do. And sanctions can stop it. “Global sanctions need to be tightened,” he said in a tweet.
The head of the military administration for the city of Kyiv said it was the first hit on the capital by a Russian missile in 51 days.
As of right now, there are no news of civilian deaths in the capital.
In a post on the messaging service Telegram, officials said that Ukraine’s air defence system shot down 21 of the 23 missiles and two of the attack drones.
The Ukraine State Border Service shared a video on Telegram of a badly damaged apartment block in Uman after the strikes.
Olga, who lives in one of the damaged flat buildings, told the news agency Reuters that her windows were blown out and ‘then there was an explosion’.
One man cried as he saw emergency workers put a body on a bed and take it away.
The attacks are happening at a time when it is thought that Ukrainian forces are getting ready for a military offensive with new equipment, like tanks, sent by Western partners.
Russia has had trouble making progress in a winter offensive that has included a 10-month fight for control of the strategically important city of Bakhmut.
It wasn’t clear right away what Russia was trying to attack on Friday, but it has struck civilian infrastructure in the past.
Moscow has said in the past that it does not intentionally target civilians, but since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of citizens have been hurt and killed.