A six-year-old girl has been killed and her mother seriously injured after a Russian missile struck the central square of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing at least seven and wounding 90.

Announcing the latest death from the strike, Ukrainian officials said police provided first aid but the child had ‘a very large loss of blood’.

The head of the interior Ministry Ihor Klimenko said: ‘The doctors could not save her.’

Officials said at least seven people were killed and 90 wounded following the strike which hit a university building and destroyed a theatre roof.

Locals had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the city came under fire, the ministry said. After being liberated from Russian occupation, the city had been largely spared from major attacks as fierce fighting rages in the east and south.

A man sits near the body of a local resident at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv, Saturday

Firefighters work on a roof of the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre after it was destroyed in the Russian attack

The National Police of Ukraine, firefighters work at the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre damaged by a Russian attack in Chernihiv

‘A Russian missile hit right in the centre of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theatre,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on a working visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram.

‘An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss.’

The Ukrainian president added: ‘This is what a neighborhood with a terrorist state is, this is what we unite the whole world against.’

A short video accompanying Zelenskiy’s post showed debris scattered across a square in front of alarge Soviet-era building. Parked cars around the theatre were were partially destroyed, with smashed roofs and windows blown out.

One body could also be briefly seen in the video slouched inside a car. 

Fire trucks were seen outside the building as emergency services responded to the strike. 

The centre of Chernihiv has since been closed to allow emergency services to access the area.

An ambulance is pictured near the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv

Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre is seen damaged by Russian attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Saturday

Fire engines rush to the scene in Chernihiv where the missile strike took place

A car is seen smashed up and damaged after Russia’s strike on the northern Ukrainian city

Firefighters work on the roof of the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre damaged by Russian attack in Chernihiv

A man sits near a covered dead body after Russian attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Saturday

Writing on telegram regional Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said the attack was ‘probably a ballistic missile.’

Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the front line with missiles and drones as part of its full-scale invasion launched February 2022. 

Chernihiv is located close to the Belarus border. It was occupied by Russian forces early in Moscow’s assault on Ukraine and later liberated and recaptured by Kyiv’s forces.

The city is full of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches. It is about 145 km (90 miles) north of the capital Kyiv. 

The attack on Chernihiv hit after Putin met top Russian generals in a rare trip to the operational hub Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, while Volodymyr Zelensky visited Sweden.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the front line with missiles and drones as part of the invasion it launched in February last year.

Kyiv’s air force said early on Saturday the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.

Amid the strike on the Ukrainian city, Russia claimed on Saturday that it had thwarted a Kyiv drone attack on a military airfield in the Novgorod region, an area between Moscow and Saint Petersburg not previously targeted.

‘Today at about 10 am Moscow time, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using a copter-type drone on a military airfield in the Novgorod region,’ the Russian army said in a statement. It said it was shot down ‘by small arms’.

An emergency service worker stands at the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv

A view shows the site of a Russian missile strike, where five were killed and dozens were wounded

Rescuers are pictured working at the area where a missile hit the Drama Theatre in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Saturday

Hours before the strike, the Kremlin said Putin had travelled to the southern city of Rostov-on-Don to meet his top generals in a rare trip close to fighting zones.

Putin’s meeting with Moscow’s top military brass came after Kyiv claimed some success on the battlefield this week and a day after the US approved the transfer of Dutch and Danish F-16 warplanes to Kyiv.

Moscow gave no details of when the meeting took place, but footage released by state media indicated it was at night.

“Vladimir Putin held a meeting at the headquarters of the special military operation group in Rostov-on-Don,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

“The head of state listened to briefings by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, commanders of directions and other senior officers of the group.”

A video published by the RIA Novosti news agency showed Putin, wearing a suit, stepping out of a jeep in the dark and being greeted with a handshake by Gerasimov, in military attire.

Gerasimov is seen leading Putin down a corridor decorated with portraits of Russian military men and of the president chairing a meeting with army chiefs.

Rostov-on-Don was also the scene of a dramatic armed mutiny by Wagner mercenaries in June, which saw them briefly take over the army HQ in Rostov, before halting their rebellion.

Gerasimov, who Wagner wanted to unseat, has rarely been seen in public since.