A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 18 people and left dozens wounded, Ukrainian officials have said. Nine of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in Kryvyi Rih. Local officials said a ballistic missile had hit a residential area. Images showed at least one victim lying in a playground, while a video showed a large section of a 10-storey block of flats destroyed and victims lying on the road.
The attack, early on Friday evening, was among the deadliest on Kryvyi Rih since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and comes as US President Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire.
Zelensky wrote on social media that at least five buildings had been damaged in Friday’s strike: “There is only one reason why this continues: Russia doesn’t want a ceasefire, and we see it.”
The head of Kryvyi Rih’s defence, Oleksandr Vilkul, said a residential area was hit. “The missile exploded in the air… to injure more people,” he said. “Children were killed on or near a playground.”
Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, said more than 40 people were treated for wounds, and the youngest was only three months old.
Later on Friday, Vilkul reported more explosions, saying the city was under a “mass” drone attack that triggered fires in at least four locations.
Military chiefs from both the UK and France met Zelensky in Kyiv earlier in the day to discuss plans for foreign peacekeepers to be stationed in Ukraine as part of a potential ceasefire deal. But there has been little sign of a let-up in the violence.
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