(Reuters) -Russian missiles hit a residential complex and a nearby building of Ukraine’s security service in the central city of Dnipro on Thursday, officials said, injuring nine people and causing widespread damage.
Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app the injured were receiving treatment at home.
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said it was the third time the SBU security service building had been targeted. Both buildings were largely empty – the residential building because it had just been completed and units were being put up for sale.
“There were two hits in Dnipro at about 8.30 p.m. (1730 GMT), Iskander missiles, according to preliminary information,” Lysak said on national television.
“Part of the apartment building was destroyed. It was not even yet in use and there weren’t many people there. A few people were trapped but are now out. The security service building is partially destroyed.”
Pictures posted on social media showed part of one building reduced to rubble and debris strewn across a large courtyard.
Russia, whose forces invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, says it does not target civilian sites.
Its forces have intensified evening and night-time missile attacks on a variety of targets – focusing in particular on port facilities around the city of Odesa after Moscow pulled out of an agreement allowing grain shipments from Ukraine’s ports.
President Volodymr Zelenskiy said he had he had convened emergency meetings with the SBU, the interior ministry, emergency services and local officials following the missile strikes.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
