Berlin, 19 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) - At least seven people, including a child, have been killed in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv as a result of a Russian missile attack, according to official figures.

At least 90 other people were injured by the shelling in the busy city centre, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram on Saturday. Children were also among the injured.

A missile hit the city centre, near a university and theatre, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

"An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss. There are dead, there are wounded," Zelensky wrote in a post with a short video clip showing debris on a pavement in the city.

According to Chernihiv's governor, Vyacheslav Chaus, initial reports indicate that the city was hit by a ballistic missile.

He called on the population to stay in air raid shelters for the time being.

This is what it means to live next to a terrorist state. This is what we are uniting the entire world against.

Today, a Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv. A square, a university, and a theater. Russia turned an ordinary Saturday into a day of pain and loss. There are… pic.twitter.com/AMgXCVfR7h

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 19, 2023

Maeanwhile, Russia claimed to have repelled a Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, according to the state-run TASS news agency on Saturday, citing the Defence Ministry in Moscow.

The missile was reportedly intercepted by Russian air defence in the early hours of Saturday.

No casualties or damage were reported.

The information could not be independently verified.

Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for almost 18 months. The strategic peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has been at the centre of several attacks recently.

Ukraine has been carrying out a counteroffensive with the help of Western weapons to reclaim its territory back from Russia.

In Russia itself, a military airbase in the north-west of the country has been attacked by a Ukrainian drone, according to Moscow.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, air defences tried to shoot down the unmanned aerial vehicle over the site in the Novgorod region on Saturday morning.

A fire then broke out at the airfield, damaging one of the aircraft. No one was injured.

Independent information on the extent of the damage could not be verified. There was no official reaction from Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met high-ranking military officers in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, for the first time since the city became the centre of the attempted mutiny by Wagner mercenary forces.

Putin met and was briefed by Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and other top military commanders at the military headquarters of the Southern Military District, the Kremlin announced on Saturday.

It was unclear when exactly the visit took place. There was no official reason given for the visit either.

Rostov-on-Don gained international notoriety after Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin occupied it for several hours at the end of June in his short-lived uprising against Moscow.

Frustrated with what he saw as the Defence Ministry's ineffective leadership, Prigozhin marched his fighters from Rostov towards Moscow.

However not long afterwards, negotiations led by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko persuaded the 62-year-old to retreat, less than 200 kilometres from Moscow. In return, he and his fighters were promised immunity from prosecution.

Nearly half a million soldiers on both sides may have been killed or wounded in the Ukraine war, according to a report by the New York Times on Friday, which quoted US government officials.

At the same time, they warned that casualties were difficult to estimate because Kiev does not publish figures and Moscow is suspected of underreporting deaths and injuries.

According to the report, the unnamed US officials estimate that there have been 120,000 soldiers killed and 170,000 to 180,000 wounded on the Russian side. For Ukraine, they say around 70,000 soldiers have died and 100,000 to 120,000 have been wounded since the beginning of the Russian invasion around 18 months ago.

According to the British Ministry of Defence's daily update from Saturday, there have been mostly no changes on the front line in the past week. Only in the south, the Ukrainians are reported to be advancing along the Mokri Yaly river, aiming to recapture the village of Urozhaine despite strong Russian resistance. On the other hand, the Russians have not achieved significant success with attempted advances in the Kupyansk area.

Photo: print screen