Ukrainian city grieve for 4-year-old girl after Russian missile attack According to Reuters

By SERGIY VOLOSHYN and Valentyn Ogirenko

VINNYTSIA, Ukraine, July 15 (Reuters) – A city far from the front lines of Ukraine has mourned the death of a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, as Russian missiles continue to hit cities other across the country.

Late on Friday, Russian missiles hit Dnipro, killing three people and injuring 15 others, the local governor said on Telegram. The missile hit an industrial plant and a street next to it, he said. Footage on social media showed thick black smoke rising from buildings and burning cars.

“Right now, as I am writing this address, there is an air alarm over almost the entire territory of our state. There is preliminary information on the attacks – Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Kyiv region. “, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post.

Ukraine said Thursday’s attack on an office building in Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Kyiv, was carried out using a Kalibr-launched cruise missile. from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.

Kyiv said the attack had killed at least 23 people and wounded.

The rockets destroyed a nearby medical center and some people who came for treatment were burned alive in their cars outside, the center’s owner said. Two doctors were seriously wounded.

The attack was the latest in a series of Russian attacks in recent weeks with long-range missiles on crowded buildings in cities far from the front, each killing dozens.

People place teddy bears and flowers at a makeshift memorial.

Among the dead was Liza, a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, found in debris next to a stroller. Pictures of the little girl pushing the same stroller, posted on a blog by her mother less than two hours before the attack, quickly went viral.

Doctors say her seriously injured mother, Iryna Dmitrieva, is being kept under wraps at the hospital out of fear that discovering her daughter will kill her.

Oleksandr Fomin, chief doctor of Vinnytsia Emergency Hospital, said: ‘She is suffering from burns, injuries to her chest, abdomen, liver and spleen. speak. When she talks about her daughter’s death, “we will lose her”.

The building houses the officers’ club, which the Russian Defense Ministry says is being used for meetings between military officials and foreign arms suppliers. It added: “The attack resulted in the removal of the participants.”

Ukraine says the club acts as a cultural center. The building also houses shops, commercial offices and a concert hall, where musicians are rehearsing for a pop concert scheduled for that night.

Authorities in the southern city of Mykolaiv, closer to the frontline, also reported new strikes on Friday that left at least two people injured.

GRADE PROGRESS

Despite the bloodshed, both sides described progress in reaching an agreement to lift the blockade restricting Ukraine’s grain exports. The Turkish mediator said an agreement could be signed next week.

Asked if that timeline was realistic, a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters: “We really hope so. We are rushing as much as we can.” The request source is not specified.

The Russian Defense Ministry said an agreement was close to being reached. The Russian negotiator warned that a grain deal would not lead to the resumption of peace talks.

A possible deal would involve inspecting ships to ensure Ukraine is not carrying weapons and assurances from Western countries that Russia’s own food exports are exempt from sanctions.

Moscow welcomed a clarification from Washington on Thursday that banks, insurers and shippers would not be targeted by sanctions for facilitating shipments of grain and fertilizer by Russia. Russia.

The fighting dominated the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Indonesia on Friday. Conflict involving two of the world’s top grain exporters and one of their main oil and gas producers is causing global food and energy shortages, inflation, crisis financial resources and potentially cause famine.

“At the start of this war, Russia bears full responsibility for the negative effects on the global economy, especially higher commodity prices,” said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Russian officials at the meeting that she held them personally responsible for “war crimes”, a Western official told Reuters.

Russia called the February 24 intervention a “special military operation” aimed at disarming Ukraine and rooting out nationalists. Kyiv and his allies call it an attempt to recapture a country that broke free from Moscow rule in 1991.

Russia’s attacks on cities far from the front come at a time when the dynamics appear to be changing after weeks of Russian gains.

Since capturing the eastern industrial cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in battles that have killed thousands of troops on both sides, Russia has paused. A Ukrainian general said Kyiv had not lost “a meter” of territory in a week.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has launched new HIMARS missile systems received from the United States, hitting targets deep in the territory held by Russia. It seems to have blown up the ammunition stock that Moscow relies on to arm the large artillery barges.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister said that the first M270 systems that will provide Ukraine with additional multi-missile fire have arrived in the country, Ukraine’s defense minister said on Friday. The mayor of the eastern city said Russia fired its own multi-role missile system in Sloviansk on Friday.

Ukraine says it is preparing a counterattack in the coming weeks to retake a southern territory near the Black Sea coast.