Russian missile strikes injure 17 in central Ukrainian city

Russian missile strikes on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih wounded 17 people, authorities said on Sunday, following an overnight attack on the country that included dozens of drones.

A police officer and rescue worker were among those injured in the strikes that damaged sites including an administrative building, a hotel and an educational facility, the National Police said on social media.

Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said in a later update that only 15 apartment buildings, stores, a cafe, a church, office spaces, a bank branch and a gas pipeline had been damaged in the city, which is President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown.

Kyiv's military said Russia had fired two ballistic missiles, and also reported that Ukraine had shot down 31 out of 49 Russian drones across the country.

Around 10 drones were destroyed near the capital Kyiv, the city's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app. There were no reports of destruction or injuries, it added.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Meanwhile, Ukraine struck a manufacturer of military explosives deep inside Russian territory overnight, as well as storage infrastructure at a military airfield in the Lipetsk region, Kyiv's General Staff said in a statement on Sunday.

Russian air defence units downed 110 Ukrainian drones over the country, Russia's defence ministry said, including one over the Moscow region, 43 over the border region of Kursk, and 27 over southwestern Lipetsk region.

The Russian SHOT Telegram channel reported that drones attempted to strike the Ya. M. Sverdlov State Owned Enterprise in Dzerzhinsk city, Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400 km east of Moscow.

The explosives plant, one of the largest manufacturers of its kind used by Russian forces in the war that Moscow launched against Ukraine in February 2022, is subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union.