As the conflict nears its critical stage, Russian missiles strike Chernihiv City in Ukraine, killing 17

Authorities said that at least 17 people were killed after three Russian missiles struck an eight-story apartment building in the downtown district of Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, on Wednesday.

According to Ukrainian emergency services, the morning assault injured at least 61 people, three of whom were children. Rescuers combed through huge piles of wreckage and partly destroyed structures. Chernihiv, which has a population of around 250,000, is located close to the borders with Belarus and Russia, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital, Kyiv.

The most recent Russian bombing occurred as the conflict enters its third year and is getting closer to what may be a turning point. Ukraine is becoming more and more vulnerable to the larger troops of the Kremlin due to the absence of further military help from its Western allies.

Russia concentrated on attritional warfare throughout the winter, making no significant advances along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. However, military experts claim that the Russians have been able to advance gradually because of Ukraine’s lack of soldiers, armored vehicles, and artillery ammunition.

The delay in Washington in approving an assistance package worth around $60 billion for Ukraine is a significant reason. On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he will attempt to advance the measure this week.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research organization, claims that Ukraine is in dire need.

The ISW said in an assessment late on Tuesday that “only the U.S. can provide rapidly and at scale,” adding that “the Russians are breaking out of positional warfare and beginning to restore maneuver to the battlefield because of the delays in the provision of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala gave Ukraine some encouraging news on Wednesday, stating that his nation has acquired 500,000 artillery rounds for the country from non-EU nations. June is when the first shells are supposed to arrive.

A year ago, the 27-member EU committed to providing one million artillery rounds to Ukraine, but the group was unable to meet that demand.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has appealed with Western nations to provide additional air defense systems, particularly more Patriot guided missile systems that are surface-to-air. According to him, the Chernihiv hit “would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the international community was equally determined to counter Russian terror.”

In an interview that aired earlier this week, Zelenskyy told PBS that, as part of a recent Russian campaign to target energy infrastructure, Ukraine recently ran out of air defense missiles while defending against a significant missile and drone attack that destroyed one of the country’s largest power plants.

As he readied himself to attend a Group of Seven foreign ministers conference in Italy, Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, reiterated Zelensky’s plea.

“To prevent the destruction of our cities and economic hubs, we require a minimum of seven additional Patriot batteries,” Kuleba said in an interview that was published on Wednesday with the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “Why is it that finding seven Patriot batteries is so difficult?”

In preparation for what Kyiv authorities predict might be a big Russian onslaught as early as next month, Ukrainian soldiers are digging in and fortifying their positions.

The goal of Ukraine’s long-range drone and missile attacks beyond Russian lines is to interfere with Moscow’s military apparatus.

A Ukrainian drone was shot down early on Wednesday over the Tatarstan area, according to Russia’s military ministry. That’s the same region that was the focus of Ukraine’s most intense attack on Russia in early April; it’s located around 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Ukraine.

Drone developers in Ukraine have been increasing the weapons’ operational range.

According to the ministry, another Ukrainian drone was shot down over the Mordovia area, which is located around 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Moscow. That distance from the Ukrainian border is 700 kilometers (430 miles).

Due to safety concerns, the Russian civil aviation authorities suspended flights at airports in Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, about an hour before to the Mordovia incident.

Unverified sources also said that an airbase in occupied Crimea was hit by a Ukrainian missile. The airfield’s location was momentarily blocked by local authorities, but neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials acknowledged the attack. The local mayor was reported by the Russian news outlet Tass as stating that an explosion in the area broke windows in a private home and a mosque.