Ukraine updates: Girl killed, dozens injured in Dnipro blast

A 2-year-old girl has been killed and 22 more people were injured after a Russian missile struck an area between two residential buildings near the southeastern city of Dnipro late on Saturday.

"Overnight, a girl's body was retrieved from under the rubble of a house in the Pidhorodnenska community," regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Sunday. "She just turned two."

Among the injured were five other children, he added.

Authorities said the explosion partially destroyed a pair of two-story buildings as well as 10 private homes, a shop and a gas pipeline.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia's war, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children.

The president said in a statement that "Russian weapons and hatred continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day." 

"Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine's history," he said.

Zelenskyy said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children who were casualties due to the ongoing hostilities and because some areas are under Russian occupation.

Here are some of the other developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine on Sunday, June 4:

Ukraine minister in 'disbelief' at state of bomb shelters

Ukrainian Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin expressed "disbelief" at the state of the country's bomb shelters on Sunday.

Zelenskyy has ordered an inspection of all bomb shelters in the country after three people who were unable to access a shelter in Kyiv were killed by a Russian airstrike on Thursday.

Kamyshin said that out of 1,078 shelters examined on the first day, 359 were unprepared and another 122 locked, while 597 were found to be usable.

"I greeted with disbelief that fact that half were open and considered ready," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"Yesterday, when we selectively checked the shelters in the Obolon district with our mayor, the absolute majority of the shelters were closed."

Inspections will continue, Kamyshin added.

Belgorod shelling prompts evacuations

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region has described a scene of "combat" between Russian forces and pro-Ukrainian fighters in Novaya Tavolzhanka, which lies right on the border with Ukraine.

"A sabotage group came, there is combat now in Novaya Tavolzhanka," Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. "I hope they will all be destroyed."

Two people were killed by strikes in Belgorod on Saturday and reports said shelling continued overnight into Sunday.

"Overnight, it was quite restless," Gladkov said, adding that the Shebekino and Volokonovsky districts suffered "lots" of damage and some 4,000 people have been evacuated from the area.

Last month, the two districts were the scene of border incursions by two pro-Ukrainian guerrilla groups.

Kyiv has denied it is behind the attacks and two Russian groups later claimed responsibility.

But military analysts say the incursions and border attacks could be a prelude to Ukraine's much-awaited counteroffensive against Russia's invasion.

Gladkov also said he was willing to meet the guerilla fighters after they offered to exchange prisoners.

"The only thing stopping me from negotiating with them is our guys that are in their hands, maybe they are already dead," he said on Telegram. "But if they are not, then from 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) to 6:00 p.m. at the car border point in Shebekino. I guarantee safety."

Russia strikes Ukrainian airfield

Russian missiles hit a Ukrainian airfield near the city of Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv said on Sunday.

"Six missiles and five attack drones" were launched by Russia, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said on television.

"Unfortunately not all of them were destroyed. Of the six, four were destroyed by air defense and two hit the operational airfield near Kropyvnytskyi," he added.

Drones downed over Crimea

Russian-installed forces on the occupied peninsula of Crimea shot down five drones and jammed four more, Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Moscow-backed administration, said on Sunday.

This reportedly caused them to miss their targets.

"There is damage to windows in several houses in a residential district" from the overnight incident, added Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser in the Moscow-installed administration

Russia has an air base near Dzhankoi, which Ukrainian officials say has been turned into Moscow's largest military base on the peninsula.

Kyiv says air defense systems repelled attack

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said that air defense systems repelled a new wave of Russian air attacks on the Ukrainian capital. 

"According to preliminary information, not a single air target reached the capital," Popko said on the Telegram messaging app early on Sunday.

"Air defense destroyed everything that was heading toward the city already at their distant approaches."

Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine for nearly three hours early Sunday, according to Reuters news agency.

This comes after repeated Russian attacks on Kyiv since May, as Ukraine prepares for a long-awaited counteroffensive.

Award-winning Mariupol film screens in Ukraine

The award-winning documentary "20 Days in Mariupol" screened for the first time in Ukraine. 

The film from the Ukrainian port city captures the atrocities and horrors of the war. It won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Some of the Ukrainian medics and first responders who were featured in the film watched it for the first time in a packed Kyiv movie theatre.

The screening hall saw repeated standing ovations, and the audience greeted the civil servants in attendance with tears and hugs.

The journalists behind the film, who spent 20 days documenting life in the city as it was attacked by the Russian forces, are reportedly on the hitlist of Moscow's army. 

More DW coverage

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zc, fb/rs (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)