Press officer Olexii Mischenko shows a destroyed city administration building in Bashtanka, Mykolaiv region, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine June 9, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Edgar Su.

A Russian missile strike killed at least one person and damaged buildings including a school in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, the local mayor said.

The attacks caused several fires, damaged a number of residential and business buildings and left smoke hanging over the port city, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said.

“I keep saying it’s still dangerous in the city. Before, people were going out in droves but they go out less now,” he said on national television.

Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said earlier on Wednesday that seven missiles had hit Mykolaiv. Grain handler Viterra said its Everi terminal in Mykolaiv was on fire after being hit in an attack but that no one had been killed there.

Reuters could not immediately verify the situation in Mykolaiv.

Moscow said it is engaged in a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its allies dismiss this as a baseless pretext to launch an unprovoked war of aggression.