KYIV — The night after the U.S. stopped sharing all intelligence with Ukraine, the Russian army attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles, killing at least four people and injuring more than 30 others.
“A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel” in Kryvyi Rih, an industrious city in Dnipropetrovsk region, Zelenskyy said in a statement Thursday morning. “Unfortunately, four people were killed in this attack,” he added.
“Just before the attack, volunteers from a humanitarian organization — citizens of Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom — had checked into the hotel. They survived because they managed to get down from their rooms in time,” Zelenskyy added.
Besides the hotel, located in a highly populated civilian neighborhood, the Russian airstrike Wednesday night also damaged 14 residential buildings, two schools, two kindergartens, a post office and business venues, Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said in a post on Telegram.
More than 30 people were injured in the attack on the city, including a 13-year-old girl, Vilkul said. He added that 28 people have been hospitalized, three of them in extremely serious condition and 11 in serious condition.
The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the strike. Earlier this week, the U.S. decided to halt all military aid to Ukraine, and soon after all intelligence sharing with Kyiv in a move to push Zelenskyy to negotiate on U.S. terms that include no security guarantees from Washington.
The halt in intel sharing came at a time when Moscow is ramping up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, depleting Kyiv’s stocks of air defense missiles. Besides Kryvyi Rih, Russia also attacked the Kharkiv, Odesa and Sumy regions. The Ukrainian Air Force reported shooting down 68 out of 112 Russian drones and no missiles.
Intelligence sharing has helped Ukraine to prepare and repel Russian missile strikes in the past.
“Every day, Ukrainian families rely on timely, accurate intelligence to protect their lives and their children from relentless Russian missile and drone attacks,” Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian World Congress advocacy group, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This critical information is not merely strategic support — it is the difference between life and death, providing civilians precious minutes to seek safety underground,” he said.
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