Local officials reported today, Friday, that a Russian missile struck a "fortified point" established to provide shelter for Ukrainian civilians, resulting in the deaths of at least three women. They stated that four other civilians were also killed overnight. President Volodymyr Zelensky's office indicated that among the deceased, two died in a heavy Russian shelling in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine.
The shelter is located in Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, one of many shelters set up by authorities across Ukraine to provide electricity, heating, water, and other essential services. Images released by emergency services from Kostiantynivka showed the severely damaged one-story shelter, now surrounded by debris.
Emergency services reported that one of the three victims was from the Bakhmut area, a site of some of the fiercest fighting in the Russian-Ukrainian war, adding that two men were also injured. They stated on Telegram, "Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of the three women from under the rubble." They also rescued one survivor from the debris.
Zelensky's office mentioned that an administrative building, a school building, and residential buildings were among the facilities damaged in the Sumy region. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that several towns and villages in the Sumy region came under missile, drone, and other attacks. Russia claimed to have destroyed a hangar for Ukrainian drones in the Odesa region. Local officials reported two more fatalities in Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine and in the southern Kherson region.
