Children among 25 killed in one of Russia's deadliest strikes on western Ukraine

At least 25 people have been killed including three children in a Russian drone and missile attack on the western city of Ternopil that hit two blocks of flats, Ukrainian rescue officials say.

Another 73 people were wounded, 15 of them children, officials said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes on western Ukraine since Moscow launched a full-scale war in 2022.

Two other western regions were hit, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, and a drone attack targeted three districts of the northern city of Kharkiv, wounding more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 442 of 476 drones launched by Russia and 41 of 48 missiles that were fired.

Ukrainian F-16 and Mirage 2000 jets had brought down 10 Russian cruise missiles, the air force said.But Ukraine's air defences are stretched.

Ternopil, a city closer to the Polish border than the capital Kyiv, has rarely faced attacks in the full-scale invasion. Social media footage of this strike shows missiles shooting across the sky towards the city, though very little sign of air defences reacting from the ground.

The devastation caused by the Russian strikes on Ternopil soon became clear. A video shared by Zelensky showed that one of the two blocks of flats had completely caved in. The interior minister Ihor Klymenko said it had been destroyed between the third and the ninth floor.

The attack had caused "significant destruction", said Zelensky, and many victims were reported to be in the rubble. Plumes of smoke poured from windows and small fires burned outside the tenement.

A giant smoke cloud rose in the distance behind the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ternopil, as sirens blared throughout the city.

With limited defence systems, and a vast country to defend every night, no matter how good Ukraine gets at shooting down Russian missiles and drones there is always a risk that some will get through – to devastating effect, as happened in Ternopil.