This morning at around 10:00 local time a Russian missile hit the drama theater in Chernihiv, some 150 kilometer north of Kiev:
"Five people died," Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said about the Chernihiv attack on Telegram. "Thirty-seven people were wounded, including 11 children."
Zelensky said the attack hit "in the center of the city" in a square that houses a "polytechnic university, a theatre".
"An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss," the Ukrainian leader said after he had arrived in Sweden.
He posted a video from the scene that showed debris around a large Soviet-era building, with parked cars around it that were partially destroyed, with smashed roofs and windows blown out.
AFP reporters saw fire trucks outside the Taras Shevchenko Drama Theatre and Music Academy, which suffered some damage.
The Ukrainian news site Strana reported that the missile hit a conference and exhibition about drones (machine translation):
13:54 There was a comment from the organizer of the drone exhibition at the Chernihiv Drama Theater, which was the target of a Russian strike.
Recall that after the strike, it turned out that the announcement of the exhibition was published in advance. Because of this, the organizers of the exhibition in social networks were accused of actually pointing the missiles themselves, revealing information about the event in advance.
The organizer of the exhibition, a well-known volunteer Maria Berlinskaya, denies the charges. She says that information about the specific venue was not publicly available, and it was sent to participants a few hours before the start of the exhibition. She also says that as soon as the air raid alert started, the exhibition was stopped.
At the same time, judging from the message of Berlinskaya, some of the participants of the exhibition suffered from the impact, as after the alarm was announced, they went not to the shelter, but to the street.
This week the Ukrainian army committed its last reserve brigade with western equipment to its counter-offensive. It will get ground up just like the forces it is replacing. The furthest the counter-offensive has gone in total was in the south of Orkiv where it progressed some 12 kilometer. It took more than 72 days, and many losses of men and material, to get that far. Tokmak, an important traffic center that Ukraine would like to take, is still 12 kilometer away. It is also protected by several well build defensive lines which the Ukrainian forces will be unable to cross.
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On the second axis of the counter-offensive, south of Velyka Novosilka, the maximum progress is some 6 to 8 kilometer. Several small villages, now destroyed, were captured along the way. The number of lives lost during the fight is much bigger than the number of inhabitants those villages previously had.
The aim of the counter-offensive was to reach the Azov Sea or, if that was not possible, to go far enough to get all southern roads under artillery fire. The distance from the frontline to the sea as of June 5 was 100 kilometer. There are still 88 kilometer to go. But time is running out and all reserves have been committed.
Over the last week the Russian Defense Ministry reported on average 770 Ukrainian frontline casualties per day. The Ukrainian counter-offensive will likely culminate next week. It has reached is maximum potential and will now peter out.
That is the moment when the Russian army will go on the offensive. A sure sign of this was last night's visit of President Putin to Rostov-on-Don from where the 'special military operation' is controlled. General Gerasimov, the leader of the Russian military, and others briefed Putin about their plans.
I have no idea where or how large the Russian offensive will be, but two days ago the Belorussian President Lukashenko gave a hint of its potential size:
COMBATE |🇵🇷 – @upholdreality – 21:56 UTC · Aug 17, 2023
LUKASHENKO to Ukrainian reporter: "Your counteroffensive cost 45,000 people in dead and maimed. 45,000!.. Your losses are 1 to 8 at the frontline. And [Russia has] 250,000 people in reserve with cutting-edge hardware. You will be crushed… and the Poles rub their hands in glee. Pushed by the Americans, they will cut off the western regions… You have to take your head into your hands and act on the basis of reality. Act in the interests of this huge and beautiful territory."
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Here is a longer version of the Lukashenko video with close captioning and the complete interview which unfortunately has no close captioning.