Ukraine yesterday mourned 18 people, including nine children, killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home city of Kryvyi Rig, as the region’s governor said it was “the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.”
Sixty-two people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said after emergency operations were completed overnight.
The missile attack on Friday, one of the deadliest in the past few weeks, struck a residential area near a children’s playground, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration.
Photo: Reuters
“On 7, 8 and 9 April, days of mourning will be declared in Kryvyi Rig for those killed as a result of yesterday’s terrorist attacks on our city by the killer country,” he said.
“Children, families, the elderly... Ballistic missile and shakedown attacks on residential areas and playgrounds... This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians,” he added.
Pictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
“This is the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy,” Lysak said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it “delivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile on a restaurant” in the city “where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.”
It said its air defense units had intercepted and destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The commander of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was “trying to cover up its cynical crime” and “spreading false information” about the target of the strike.
He accused Russia of “war crimes.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy slammed the US embassy in Ukraine for what he called a “weak” statement that did not blame Russia for the missile strike.
The criticism came as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, while seeking a thaw ties with Moscow.
Writing on social media Zelenskiy said that the “reaction of the US Embassy is unpleasantly surprising.”
“Such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” he said.
“They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children,” he said.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on Friday evening wrote about the attack on social media when there was not a complete toll.
“Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in [Kryvyi Rig]. More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end,” she wrote.
Numerous comments under the post criticized her for not saying that Russia launched the attack.
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