World News | Relatives bury children killed in Russian missile attack

UMAN (Ukraine), April 30 (AP) — Relatives and friends wept around coffins Sunday as they buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city as fighting continued. More lives were claimed elsewhere.

Almost all of the 23 victims of Friday’s attack were killed when two missiles hit an apartment building in Uman. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said six children were among the dead.

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Mykhayl Shulha, 6, wept and hugged relatives next to the coffin of his 11-year-old sister Sofia Shulha at Sunday’s funeral, while others paid their respects to a 17-year-old boy.

As mourners held candles, crossed themselves and sang, the priest of the Church of the Icon of Our Lady “Quick Listen” waved incense containers over the coffins. He said the death hit the entire community hard.

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“I live nearby,” said Father Fyodor Botsu. “I have personally known the children since they were very young and I have personally baptized them in this church. Since I had children, I am a citizen of this country and have lived in this city for 15 years, I And everyone is worried.”

He said he prayed that “wars should end and peace should come to our homes, cities and countries.”

Flowers and photos of the victims were brought in front of damaged buildings in Uman.

Russia’s 14-month war claimed more lives elsewhere on Sunday.

Four people have been killed in a rocket attack in Ukraine, the governor of the Russian region bordering Ukraine said. Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said the rockets hit houses in the village of Suzemka, 9 kilometers (6 miles) from the Ukrainian border. He said two other residents were injured and defense systems shot down some of the incoming shells.

Bryansk and the neighboring Belgorod region experienced sporadic cross-border shelling throughout the war. In March, two people were reported killed in what officials say was an invasion of the Bryansk region by Ukrainian saboteurs.

Also Sunday, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said his region of Kherson, Ukraine, was hit by Russian shelling 27 times in the past 24 hours, killing one civilian.

Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive is expected to be likely to focus on the Kherson region, the gateway to Crimea and other Russian-occupied territories on the Ukrainian southern mainland. Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops out of the regional capital of Kherson last year, a major defeat for Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the counteroffensive would not wait until all promised military equipment had been delivered.

Zelensky told reporters in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway: “I really wanted to wait for everything that was promised. But unfortunately, the terms (of arms deliveries and counterattacks) were not aligned. And, I will say frankly , we’ll keep an eye on the weather.”

Ukraine particularly wanted it to receive Western fighter jets, but Zelensky said his forces would not delay a counteroffensive so as not to “assure Russia that we still have a few months to train on the planes before we start. “

Zelensky said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday about the arms supply and was satisfied with its “speed and specificity”.

Macron’s office said he reiterated France’s commitment to provide Ukraine with “all the assistance it needs to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity” and discussed long-term European military assistance.

The head of Wagner’s mercenary corps, which is leading Russia’s operations in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bahmut, has given a more precise timeline for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Ukrainian military will launch a counteroffensive by May 15, when heavy rains will stop and the soil will be dry enough for tanks and artillery to move, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement to Russia on Saturday. The reporter said in a video interview.

In other battlefield developments, Ukraine’s Northern Command said the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, which border Bryansk and Belgorod, came under 11 artillery strikes overnight on Sunday. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)