“A dozen” people were killed and thirty injured in a Russian strike on Friday on a military installation in Dnipro, a large industrial city in central-eastern Ukraine, announced the head of territorial defense of the city.
“Iskander missiles hit a National Guard practice range. We deplore a dozen dead and between 30 and 35 injured,” Guennadi Korban told local channel Dnipro TV. “This despite the fact that we and the military had tried to take precautions, distributing personnel” around the entire perimeter of this installation, he added, implying that the victims were military.
Three missiles were fired from Russia’s Rostov region, he said, but only one caused casualties.
In the morning, regional governor Valentin Reznitchenko announced on Telegram that several Russian strikes had targeted Dnipro overnight and on Friday morning, causing “serious destruction”, but without giving an assessment.
“Relief is clearing debris and looking for people,” he wrote without further details.
Dnipro, an industrial city of one million inhabitants crossed by the eponymous river (the Dnieper, in Russian), marks the limit with the eastern regions of the country, with a Russian-speaking majority.
The region has been relatively spared so far by the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian armies, even if its airport was “completely destroyed” during a bombardment on April 10, according to local authorities.
