Update on the war in Ukraine: 23 dead in Russian missile attack in Vinnytsia

Britain has announced a £2.5million support package to help Ukrainian prosecutors, including deploying mobile judicial teams and training forensic teams of up to 90 judges and British staff to help victims of sexual violence.

Officials have registered more than 21,900 suspected Russian war crimes under investigation, plus another 11,000 described as acts against national security under Ukrainian law, and 800 for looting and theft.

Russia is accused in a new report of carrying out a horrific campaign of killings, rapes and torture in Ukraine amid an international summit to bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.

World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta Reports:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again called for Russia to be officially recognized as a terrorist state, this time after a deadly attack in Vinnytsia, a town far behind the front lines, killed at least 23 people.

“This day proved once again that Russia must be officially recognized as a terrorist state. No other country in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia. No other country in the world allows itself to destroy peaceful cities and ordinary human life every day with cruise missiles and rocket artillery,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Thursday.

He added: “Three children under the age of ten. And unfortunately that’s not the final number. Debris removal is underway. Dozens of people are believed to be missing. Among those who are hospitalized are seriously injured.”

Mr Zelensky said that one of the Russian missiles destroyed a key health facility, the Neuromed medical center. “There were people inside. Nataliya, she is 40 years old. Tetiana, she is 32 years old. Volodymyr, he is 61 years old. Vira, she is 55 years old. I saw her among the missing. See, it wasn’t even known what happened to the people who just went to the medical center…” Mr. Zelensky said.

“And if someone launched a rocket attack on a medical center in Dallas or Dresden, God forbid what would it be called? Wouldn’t that be called terrorism?” asked the Ukrainian President.

Mr Zelensky said a four-year-old girl was killed in the strike while a conference on Russian war crimes was being held in The Hague in the Netherlands.

“A conference that decided what should be done to ensure that every Russian military is punished,” he said.

At least 23 people, including three children, were killed after a Russian missile hit the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the front lines on Thursday.

The west-central town that has become Moscow’s most recent target, houses the command headquarters of Ukraine’s Air Force and was a target as early as March when the Russians used cruise missiles to hit them.

Three children, including a four-year-old girl, were killed in Thursday’s attack, Ukraine’s State Ambulance Service said.

Among the victims, 71 people were hospitalized and 29 others were reported missing.