The massive assault on the western city of Ternopil killed at least 26 people and injured nearly 100 others, Ukraine’s interior minister said Wednesday. Earlier, Ukraine’s State Emergecy Service reported that 18 of the injured were children.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko suggested Wednesday evening that entire families are missing. He said officials do not have contact with 25 people and that “in some cases there is no one to file a report.”
Oksana Kobel remained hopeful that her son, who was in a ninth-floor apartment at the time of the attack, would be found alive.
“I went to work, heard the explosions. I called him and said, ‘Bohdan, go to the shelter, get dressed.’ He answered, ‘Mom, I am already up. Everything will be fine,’” she said, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said emergency services still were working in the city “to help the victims and save as many lives as possible.”
He warned that the death toll could rise, as “there are still people trapped under the rubble.” Zelensky said that Russia “will never stop on its own,” and he urged allies to increase pressure on Moscow to halt the violence and restore peace.
Russia’s attacks have mostly targeted the eastern part of the country and large cities such as Kyiv. Many Ukrainians have fled to the west, seeing it as safer.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said it scrambled two Eurofighters, part of NATO’s fleet, and later two Romanian F-16 fighter jets after a Russian drone entered its airspace during the attack.
Polish and allied fighter jets were also launched to protect Polish airspace on Wednesday morning, the country’s operational command said.
Poland’s Rzeszow and Lublin airports, in the country’s east, were also closed “due to the need to ensure freedom of operation for military aviation,” the Polish air navigation service PANSA said on X. They were later reopened.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles during the attack overnight. It said the residential buildings in Ternopil were most likely hit by Russia’s powerful Kh-101 cruise missile, which is designed to avoid air defenses and is equipped with an advanced precision guiding system.
The latest aerial attack came hours after Zelensky arrived in Turkey in an effort to “reinvigorate” peace talks and prisoner of war exchanges with Russia. Moscow is not involved in those talks, but Turkey has been a key interlocutor between the two.
Zelensky said Ukraine was “working to resume exchanges before the New Year and return Ukrainian military prisoners, Ukrainian civilians held by Russia, and abducted Ukrainian children home.”
Meanwhile, the US administration has been quietly hammering out a new peace plan with Russia to end its war with Ukraine, a person familiar with the issue told CNN. The US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been at the center of the administration’s talks with Moscow, has been leading the effort, the source said. The negotiations have accelerated this week as the Kremlin has signaled a renewed openness to a deal.
Many regions of Ukraine were left without power Wednesday after strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Dozens of people were also wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where drone strikes damaged apartment buildings and left several cars burning on the streets.
Russia said it shot down four US-made ATACMS missiles “deep within” its territory on Tuesday. The missiles, which Ukraine said it fired, were shot down over the city of Voronezh, around 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Ukrainian border, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The use of the missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles), was first approved under the Biden presidency. Russia has denounced their use as a major escalation.
The latest move by NATO comes during a tense week. Polish officials have pointed the finger at Russia after a key train track was destroyed in what Warsaw said was an “unprecedented act of sabotage” committed by two Ukrainian citizens who were “collaborating with Russian services.” Russian officials have denied the accusation.
On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he would close the last Russian consulate in the country in response to the destruction of the train track. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed regret over the move.
On Tuesday, the US State Department approved a possible $105 million sale that would allow Ukraine to upgrade its Patriot air defense system – a critical shield against Russian aerial attacks.
“The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s ability to meet current and future threats by further equipping it to conduct self-defense and regional security missions with a more robust local sustainment capability,” said a Pentagon statement.
Earlier this week, Zelensky struck a deal during a visit to Paris to purchase “up to 100” French-made Rafale fighter jets as well as anti-air defenses and drones from France.
NATO allies have increasingly scrambled fighter jets in recent months during Russian attacks on Ukraine, or when stray Russian munitions, drones and warplanes have either strayed too close to their borders or crossed them.
Symons reported from Hong Kong and Nicholls from London. CNN’s Antonia Mortensen, Anna Chernova and Nina Subkhanberdina contributed to this report.
