Ukraine War: A 2-year-old girl was killed and many injured in Dnipro after the Russian strike

A two-year-old girl was killed and 22 others were injured after an alleged Russian airstrike hit a residential area in the city of Dnipro, central Ukraine.

The district governor said her body was recovered from the rubble of a house in Pidhorodninska district overnight.

Serhiy Lysak said that five of the wounded were children, and three boys were in serious condition in hospital.

An earlier video released by the Ukrainian president showed rescuers searching through the remains of a two-storey building.

Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack, but the Kremlin has yet to comment on the events.

Explosions were also heard in the capital, Kiev, where air defense systems were again deployed. The entire country had been placed under air raid alerts earlier.

Zelensky described the blast in Dnipro as a deliberate Russian strike, although Russia has previously denied targeting civilians during its invasion of the neighboring country.

Fires broke out following the alleged strike in an area north of the city, according to the district governor, who said 17 of those injured in the blast had been taken to hospital.

Explosions were reported in other parts of the country. The head of the city’s military administration said that early Sunday morning, air defense systems took part in repelling air attacks near Kiev.

Serhiy Popko wrote on the Telegram channel that all the missiles targeting the city were shot down.

Officials in the northern city of Sumy recorded 87 explosions as a result of Russian bombing, and spoke of casualties and damage to infrastructure.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ignat said on television that an airfield near the central city of Kropivnytskyi had been hit by cruise missiles.

He said that the air defenses were only able to shoot down four of the six missiles, and he did not give details of the damage to the site.

More than a dozen explosions have also been reported in the southern Russian-occupied cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol, though details are scarce.

And in Russia, the governor of the Belgorod border region said a market area in the town of Chebykino, about four miles (7 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border, was bombed on Sunday morning.

Earlier, Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were killed in attacks near the town on Saturday. He urged residents of towns and villages along the border to leave their homes.

Local authorities said Ukraine was responsible, though Ukraine itself said the deaths were the result of Russia’s attempt to target fighters opposing the government in Moscow.

Kiev denied any direct involvement, again saying the attack was carried out by Russian paramilitary forces.

In other developments, a close aide to President Zelensky said his country is not yet ready to begin its long-promised counter-offensive against the occupying Russian soldiers.

His words seemed at odds with those of Mr. Zelensky, who just a day earlier was quoted as saying that Ukraine was ready to start the maneuver.

But the inconsistent comments from Ukrainian officials may have been a deliberate attempt to confuse Moscow, the Sunday Times reported.