TOP HEADLINES

• Russia said Ukrainian drones hit three separate regions on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow's airports to briefly divert flights. Drone strikes both on Russian border regions and on the Russian capital have become increasingly common in recent months, with repeated strikes on Moscow's financial district. READ MORE BELOW

• Seven people, including a 6-year-old girl, were killed and nearly 150 wounded by a Russian missile strike on the center of Ukraine's northern city of Chernihiv, in what the UN denounced as a "heinous" attack. Coinciding with the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the strike hit while some people were attending morning church services in the city. READ MORE BELOW

• "I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. "A notable response."

• Ukraine has begun discussing with Sweden the possibility of receiving Gripen jets to boost its air defenses, Zelenskyy said after meeting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm. On Sunday, he arrived in the Netherlands for talks with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte.

• Ukraine's Defense Minister has said that training has begun for Ukrainians to operate U.S. F16 fighter jets, but it would take at least six months and possibly longer before they were ready to use the jets. That's two days after a U.S. official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.

• The UK's Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update that there have been increasing reports of long-range Soviet-era missiles striking inside Russia's borders. It says the 7.5 tonne, 11-meter-long SA-5 Gammon missiles were retired from Ukraine's air defense roster, but were now apparently being used as ground attack missiles to attack behind the Russian frontier.

IN DETAIL

Zelenskyy vows response to deadly Chernihiv strike

Seven people including a 6-year-old girl were killed, 148 wounded, and 41 were in hospital after a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.

"I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack," President Volodymyr Zelensyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday. "A notable response."

He said that 15 of the people injured were children, and named the girl killed as Sofia. 

Fifteen others were police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road, or returning from church.

Zelenskyy said the strike on Chernihiv, a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 kilometers north of Kyiv, coincided with the Orthodox holiday of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Debris was scattered across a square in front of the damaged theater and surrounding buildings, where parked vehicles were heavily damaged. A 63-year-old who only gave her first name, Valentyna, showed the damaged balcony in her apartment opposite the theater.

"It is horrific. Horrific. There were wounded, ambulances and broken glass in here. Nightmare. Just nightmare," she said.

Denise Brown, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said it was "heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians."

"I condemn this repeated pattern of Russian strikes on populated areas of Ukraine... Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law," she added.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack targeting Moscow and its region was intercepted on Sunday, while other drone strikes took place in the Russian border regions of Kursk and Rostov, one of which injured five people. 

According to the Russian army, "around 04:00 (01:00 GMT), an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by a drone on infrastructure in Moscow and the Moscow region was foiled." The craft "crashed in an uninhabited area" and "there were no casualties or damage."

According to Russia's Tass news agency, the international airports of Domodedovo and Vnukovo serving the Russian capital had to be temporarily closed.

In Kursk, according to the region's governor, a drone crashed on the roof of a train station, after which a fire broke out, with five people "slightly injured by shards of glass."

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