At least 21 people were killed across Russia and Ukraine as the two nations traded air strikes on Friday, authorities from both countries said. The attacks included a Russian missile strike at a gathering of Ukraine's defence industry near Kyiv.
At least 21 people were killed Friday in Russian and Ukrainian long-range strikes – including at a gathering of Ukraine's defence industry just outside Kyiv and at a factory hundreds of miles east of Moscow.
Both sides have been intensifying drone and missile strikes with diplomacy on ending the four-and-a-half-year war at a standstill.
In the most deadly attack, a Russian missile strike outside the Ukrainian capital killed at least 10 people and wounded around 100, Ukraine's prosecutor general said.
Other officials and industry figures said the strike hit an arms exhibition.
Ukrainian prosecutors opened a criminal probe into the organisation of the event – the latest Russian strike on a gathering of military and defence figures in the war.
"Russia has long abandoned any regard for international norms – and for human values," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. "Their only interest is in continuing the killing."
EU summons Russia's envoy
A Russian aerial bomb on Friday also killed five people in the frontline city of Sloviansk and damaged Latvia's honorary consulate there.
The EU’s top diplomat on Friday said Brussels will summon Russia's EU envoy over Moscow's attack on the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk and its damage to the Latvian consulate there.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she would also propose more listings aimed at Russia's military-industrial complex.
"Russia's indiscriminate attacks on Kyiv and other regions cause civilian casualties by design, not by accident," Kallas said on social media platform X.
"The strike on Latvia's Honorary Consulate in Slovyansk underscores Moscow's utter disregard for international law. Latvia has our full support."
Russia attacks site near Kyiv hosting defence industry event
A Russian attack on a site near Kyiv that was hosting a defence industry event killed at least 10 people and wounded nearly 100 others, according to Ukrainian government and industry officials.
The ballistic missile strike came a day after Zelensky met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the US company that makes the Patriot air defence systems Ukraine desperately needs to counter the devastating ballistic missiles Russia uses to advance its invasion.
“Missiles for Patriot systems are the number one priority,” Zelensky said on social media, where he reported the attack.
The attack hit the grounds of a privately operated military training site that was hosting an event, acting regional military administration head Ruslan Oliinyk wrote on Facebook, citing preliminary information. The site is about 20-30 kilometres (12-19 miles) from central Kyiv, in the Bucha district.
Emergency crews responded to the area, where 27 homes and 44 vehicles were also damaged, Oliinyk said.
The Ukrainian Defence Industry Council, which describes itself as the country’s largest association of private defence manufacturers, said industry representatives were at the site when it was hit, although it did not immediately provide further details.
Russia later confirmed that it had struck the defence industry event.
"The site was hosting a demonstration of Ukrainian and foreign-made unmanned aerial vehicles, including future models, used to strike civilian targets within Russian territory," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
