Strike on Chernihiv kills one, injures 25 – drones shut Moscow airports
Russia hits the northern Ukrainian city in daylight. Moscow halts flights at four airports, and Moldova expels a Russian diplomat after a drone crash.
Symbolic image · Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
A Russian attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv killed one man on Friday and injured at least 25 people, authorities said. An air raid alert was declared at about 1:40 p.m. local time; minutes later, the air force reported drones and a Banderol cruise missile heading for the city. The city council said two private businesses were hit. Police are documenting the damage as a suspected war crime. The same afternoon, Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya temporarily halted flights at Moscow's four airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky – during a Ukrainian drone attack. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 17 drones were shot down. Kyiv did not initially comment.
In neighboring Moldova, a Russian Geran-type drone crashed about 100 meters from a residential building in the village of Chistelnita, police said. President Maia Sandu announced that a member of the Russian embassy had been declared persona non grata. “Russia's war keeps putting Moldovan lives at risk,” she said. On the front line, Kyiv sees momentum: Zelenskyy said his soldiers have liberated more territory since the start of autumn than Russia has captured, Al Jazeera reported. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War records a net Ukrainian gain of 241 square kilometers since Sept. 1.