Death toll from Russian airstrike on Ternopil in western Ukraine rises to 25, including children

At least 25 people, including three children, were killed in a Russian missile attack on Ternopil in Western Ukraine overnight on Wednesday.

The emergency services said that 73 people have been injured, according to the latest update. It is unclear how many of them are minors. An earlier report stated that at least 16 minors were among the 66 wounded.

The rescue operation continued into midday on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said, as more people remained trapped under the debris.

“Two nine-storey residential buildings have been damaged. One has caught fire, while the other one has been destroyed from the 3rd to the 9th floor,” the service stated.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia's strike “attacked civilian population.”

“The targets were not military positions, but civilians, apartment blocks, and the ordinary places where people live their lives.”

Ukrainian Air Defence Forces spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said that, according to the preliminary information, the residential buildings in Ternopil have been hit by Russian Kh-101 cruise missiles.

Ihnat explained that western Ukraine was hit by a combined strike, which included various types of air assault weaponry, including "X-101 missiles, Kalibr missiles and one ballistic missile.”

Moscow has significantly ramped up its aerial attacks against Ukraine in recent months, targeting energy infrastructure and other civilian targets.

In many cities across Ukraine civilians have been forced to cope with over 15 hours per day without electricity, facing increasingly colder weather and the incoming winter.