Death toll after Russian missile strike in central Ukraine reaches 18
The attack targeted the home town of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The death toll after a Russian missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has risen to 18, including nine children, regional governor Serhii Lysak said.
A further 72 people were injured in Friday’s attack, ranging from a three-month-old baby to elderly residents.
Forty remain in hospital, including two children in a critical condition and 17 in a serious condition.
“There can never be forgiveness for this,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council. “Eternal memory to the victims.”
Kryvyi Rih is the home town of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The missile struck an area right next to residential buildings — hitting a playground and ordinary streets,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Local authorities said the strike damaged about 20 apartment buildings, more than 30 vehicles, an educational building and a restaurant.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Friday that it had carried out a high-precision missile strike with a high explosive warhead on a restaurant where a meeting of unit commanders and western instructors was taking place.
The Russian military claimed the strike killed 85 military personnel and foreign officers and destroyed 20 vehicles. This could not be independently verified, but the Ukrainian General Staff rejected the claims.
A later drone strike on Kryvyi Rih killed one woman and wounded seven other people.
Mr Zelensky blamed the daily strikes on Russia’s unwillingness to end the war. “Every missile, every drone strike proves Russia wants only war,” he said, urging Ukraine’s allies to increase pressure on Moscow and bolster Ukraine’s air defences.
“The United States, Europe and the rest of the world have enough power to make Russia abandon terror and war,” he said.
Russian forces launched 92 drones into Ukraine overnight, with 51 shot down by air defences, the Ukrainian air force wrote on social media. A further 31 decoy drones failed to reach their targets, it said.
One person died on Saturday in the Russian-occupied town of Horlivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region due to shelling, Moscow-installed governor Denis Pushilin said.
Security officials told Russian state news channels they had destroyed 28 Ukrainian drones over the Donetsk region overnight, marking the first time the occupied territory had been targeted by such long-range strikes.
