A devastating Russian aerial assault on Ternopil in western Ukraine has killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens more, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has confirmed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that 22 people were still missing at the site of Wednesday's Russian attack on Ternopil. Russia unleashed 476 drones and 48 missiles across Ukraine, striking vital energy and transportation infrastructure and forcing emergency power cut-offs during freezing weather. In Ternopil, the attack obliterated the upper floors of a residential building. Smoke billowed from the structure as firefighters battled the blaze while distraught residents gathered below, anxiously awaiting word about missing loved ones.
At a five-storey residential apartment block in the eastern Darnytskyi block of the city, residents said they had heard Russian bombing in the distance. It was a familiar sound, and many had gathered away from the windows in central corridors that extended along the block only for disaster to strike. We didn't understand what had happened, says Oleksandr Yastremskyi, who had taken refuge in a corridor with his wife, Tetiana, and their son Denys. It's like something had landed into our house.