A large Russian missile and drone attack hit cities across Ukraine, with a strike on residential buildings in the western city of Ternopil causing the heaviest reported loss of life. Ukrainian officials initially said at least 25 people, including three children, had been killed in Ternopil and 73 others wounded.
The attack unfolded while air-raid warnings were active across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles. The figures were attributed to the Ukrainian president and could not be independently confirmed from the supplied reporting.
In Ternopil, a multistorey residential building was hit and images circulated by Ukrainian monitoring channels showed extensive damage to its upper floors, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet described the strikes there as the deadliest in weeks and an unusually severe attack on western Ukraine, far from the main front lines. Rescue teams continued working at the site after the first casualty figures were announced.
The toll later increased. On November 21, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said crews had recovered three more bodies, including those of two children. The agency put the total at 31 dead and 94 injured, with 13 people still missing. Those later figures represent an update to the information available on the event date, rather than the initial November 19 count.
Ukraine's interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said two high-rise buildings had been damaged from the third through ninth floors. He also said some residents tried to escape the fire by jumping from upper-level windows. The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukraine's air force subsequently identified Kh-101 cruise missiles as the weapons used in the Ternopil strike. Both claims were presented by the outlet as statements from Ukrainian authorities.
Elsewhere, an overnight attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region injured at least 36 people, police said. More than 10 apartment buildings, a school, a supermarket and an ambulance substation were among the structures reported damaged. In the Lviv region, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said an energy facility and an industrial site were damaged but no casualties were reported there.
Ukraine's energy ministry said the wider barrage caused emergency power cuts in several regions. Poland briefly closed airports at Rzeszow and Lublin as Polish and allied aircraft were scrambled in response to Russian attacks near the country's border, according to Al Jazeera.
Zelenskyy said the strikes demonstrated the need for stronger pressure on Russia and renewed his appeal to allies for additional air-defence missiles. The attack came as he arrived in Turkiye for discussions related to ending the war. His appeal followed an agreement signed in France that provided for Ukraine to acquire fighter aircraft and other military equipment.
Russia, meanwhile, said Ukraine had attempted to strike civilian targets in the southern Russian city of Voronezh with four US-made ATACMS missiles. Russia's defence ministry said its forces intercepted all four and that falling debris damaged a retirement home, an orphanage and a house without causing casualties. Those assertions were Russian government claims reported by Al Jazeera; the supplied evidence did not include independent confirmation.
The Ternopil casualty figures remained provisional while search operations continued. The later discovery of victims beneath the rubble showed how quickly the scale of the attack changed in the days after November 19.
