Two 15-year-old girls were killed in a Russian missile attack on the centre of Chernihiv on Thursday, October 29, according to reporting citing the BBC and Ukrainian officials. At least 25 other people, including four children, were injured in the strike on the northern Ukrainian city, in a day of attacks that President Zelenskyy said killed 19 people across three cities.
The Chernihiv attack was reported alongside the Dnipro railway station strike and the Kremenchuk residential strikes as part of the same October 29 wave, according to the October 30 war briefing and a day-by-day account published on October 30. The girls were among the youngest victims of a week in which civilian casualties have risen sharply.
UN figures show a sharp rise in civilian harm
The attack follows a sharp deterioration recorded in the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission’s September report, published on October 15, according to reporting on October 30. The mission verified at least 328 civilians killed and 2,105 injured during September alone, with combined casualties 85 percent higher than in September 2025. Long-range missiles and drones accounted for 53 percent of September’s civilian casualties, while short-range drones accounted for another 23 percent.
For January through September, the mission recorded 2,570 civilians killed and 15,211 injured, a combined total 59 percent above the corresponding period of 2025, according to that reporting. Those are verified figures with access limitations, and the report said it could not independently confirm most Russian authorities’ allegations concerning casualties in occupied territory and inside Russia.
A city centre, not a military target, residents say
Chernihiv, near Ukraine’s northern border, has been struck repeatedly since the full-scale invasion began, but Thursday’s attack on its centre drew particular condemnation because of the ages of the dead, according to October 30 accounts. Officials did not immediately publish the names of the two girls, and hospitals were treating the injured, including children, through Thursday night.
Russia denies targeting civilians, according to its standing position cited in Ukrainian reporting. Ukrainian officials and the UN monitoring mission, however, have documented a pattern of strikes on residential areas, schools and transport hubs. In Chernihiv, the focus on Friday was on the funerals to come and on the injured children still in hospital, rather than on any military claim about the strike.
