Five children among the dead in Russian long-range missile attack

Five children, with the youngest aged just three, are among the dead after a Russian attack on eastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin deployed S-300 missiles, killing 11 people and wounding another eight in the city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part confirmed.

Vadym Filashkin said: ‘As a result of this barbaric attack, 11 people died, including five children aged from three to 17 years.’

In a statement on Telegram, he addedthat the attack showed Russian forces were ‘trying to inflict as much grief as possible on our land’.

Footage shared by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine showed rescue teams sifting through piles of smouldering rubble in the dark.

The strike took place at about 3pm on Saturday, but efforts to find any survivors continued in the night amid the vast destruction.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, stressed that Russia ‘quite simply targeted ordinary, private homes’.

He said: ‘Russia must be made to feel that none of these strikes will pass without consequences for the terrorist state.’

The deadly attack on Pokrovks was followed by a barrage of drones and cruise missile sent to Ukraine overnight.

The air force said on Telegram that Russia targeted mainly the south and east, and that it destroyed 21 out of the 28 drones.

But it did not say what happened to the three cruise missiles.

‘The enemy is shifting the focus of attack to the frontline territories – Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions were attacked by drones,’ air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told national television.

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Russia used long-range S-300 missiles on eastern Ukraine.