Ukraine war: 2 children among 8 killed in Russian strikes, as Kyiv downs bomber that Moscow says ‘malfunctioned’

Ukraine said it shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber for the first time on Friday, destroying a warplane capable of carrying long-range missiles used to attack Ukrainian cities.

Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission.

Neither claim could be independently verified. Previous Ukrainian claims of shooting down Russian warplanes during their more than two-year war have met with silence or denials from Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles struck cities in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine, killing eight people, including a 14-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy, and injuring 28, local officials said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated Kyiv officials’ almost daily appeals for more Western air defence systems, again drawing a parallel with how Israel blunted a recent Iranian attack.

Missile and drone attacks can be thwarted, he wrote on social platform, X: “This has been demonstrated in the skies over the Middle East, and it should also work in Europe.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba added: “Children must not be killed in air strikes in modern Europe.”