The death toll from this morning’s Russian missile attack on a market in Ukraine’s eastern village of Shevchenkove has now risen to at least two, according to officials.
A 60-year-old was among two women killed after the missile slammed into the village market in Shevchenkove, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of the city of Kharkiv.
In a statement, the regional prosector’s office said:
According to the investigation data, around 09:10 on January 9, the occupiers launched a missile attack on Shevchenkove town in Kupyansk district.
An enemy missile hit the territory of a local market. Two women were killed.
Three other women and a 10-year-old girl were injured in the attack, it said.
It added that an investigation has been opened into a potential war crime, citing preliminary information that the attack came from an S-300 air defence system in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
It has not been possible to independently verify these reports.
Italy will not make a decision on supplying new arms to Ukraine until next month due to political tensions, cost considerations and military shortages, according to a report.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Italy was considering supplying air defences to Ukraine after a phone call with Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in which she reaffirmed her government’s “full support” for Ukraine.
But Meloni is facing resistance to the approval of a decree to send arms to Ukraine from her allies Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, la Repubblica reported, citing unspecified sources.
Both politicians have longstanding ties with Moscow, Reuters reports, although sources from Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia parties denied having any problems with the decree.
Under Meloni’s predecessor, Mario Draghi, Italy sent five aid packages to Kyiv including military supplies.