Russian missile kills 19 including five children in Pryluky flats

A Russian Kh-101 missile struck a five-storey apartment block in Pryluky, in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, early on 7 October 2026, killing 19 people including five children. The strike destroyed 30 flats as families slept. Three of the children were one-year-olds. Rescuers spent hours searching the rubble, and late in the afternoon found the body of a fifth child.bbc.co.uk+1

Chernihiv regional head Vyacheslav Chaus said the town was hit by five cruise missiles, one of which slammed into the apartment building. Zelensky said 70 missiles were fired in total across the country. The concrete building collapsed, entombing those inside, according to video of the strike. More than 50 residents were wounded, and other residential buildings and a youth centre were damaged.

How the missile hit the block

Zelensky named the one-year-old victims as Oleksandr, Kyrylo and Serhii, and said a boy of eight called Maxsym had also been killed. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said a boy called Sasha died with his mother, Kateryna, and her mother Viktoriia; only the boy's elder sister Olha survived. Local reports said the family lived on the fifth floor.

Nationwide, the death toll on 7 October climbed to 25, with 100 people wounded, according to Zelensky's evening video address. Two people were killed in Kyiv, two in Kremenchuk and two more in Oleksandriya. More than 430 apartments and private homes were damaged in Kremenchuk alone, the regional leader said. Eleven regions were hit.ukrinform.net

Nationwide death toll reached 25

Zelensky said the attack was a combined strike involving numerous ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed drones. He said one of the "key targets" was Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Moscow made no mention of the Pryluky attack but said its "massive strike" had targeted military industries in Kyiv and elsewhere. Ukraine's air force said it shot down five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles and more than 100 drones, including 46 of Russia's jet-powered drones. That would mean as many as 26 cruise or ballistic missiles penetrated the defences. The air force said it downed more than 80% of the fast-moving drones, an improvement on the previous average of 50% to 60%.

Air defences and Russia's response

Zelensky renewed a call for allies to provide air defence support packages, and appealed for US-manufactured Patriot interceptors. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russian generals had given Putin his favourite birthday present: "war crimes". Moscow has not commented on the Pryluky strike. Zelensky said Ukraine had struck targets in Russia's Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions in the past 24 hours, including two oil facilities and a training ground, describing them as justified responses. In a separate incident, Russia's transport ministry said unmanned boats had attacked the Liberian-flagged Aframax Rio oil tanker off Sochi, and authorities said the crew was rescued.