A two-year-old girl has been killed and 22 people left injured after a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Dnipro.
Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the child’s body was pulled from the rubble of a house in the Pidhorodnenska area following the attack on Saturday night.
Five children were among the 22 injured, with three boys in serious condition in hospital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared footage online of rescuers searching the remains of a two-storey building. The Kremlin has not yet commented on the strike.
It comes after Mr Zelensky said Ukraine is ready to launch its counter-offensive against Russia and believes it will “succeed”.
Kyiv has reportedly readied 12 brigades of around 60,000 troops to spearhead the attack.
Ukrainian troops are training for combat a few miles from Bakhmut and initial operations, including long-range missile strikes on Russian military hubs, have begun.
But Mr Zelensky said he feared “a large number of soldiers will die” and he still wants more air defence systems to protect his troops from the larger Russian air force.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, he said: “We strongly believe the counter-offensive will succeed. I don’t know how long it will take.
“To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it and we are ready.”
Following the attack in Dnipro, Russia launched a new wave of overnight air strikes on the country. Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday it destroyed more than half of the air targets.
Four of the six cruise missiles and three of the five Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia were downed, the air force said on Telegram.
