The attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region wounded nearly 300, including a number of children. What we know on day 1,218

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A Russian attack on the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday killed at least 19 people and wounded nearly 300 in a region coming under mounting pressure. Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said 17 residents of the central city of Dnipro were killed and 279 people, including children, were wounded. Two more were left dead in the nearby town of Samar. Police said an administrative building, shops, educational facilities and a children’s hospital were damaged. Russian forces recently claimed to have reached the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region, gaining a foothold there for the first time in the war.

The attacks came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Netherlands to meet with allies on the sidelines of the Nato defence alliance summit. The summit is expected to endorse a higher defence spending goal of 5% of GDP – a response to a demand by Trump and to Europeans’ fears that Russia poses an increasingly direct threat to their security after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The new target – to be achieved over the next 10 years – is a big increase on the current goal of 2% of GDP.