A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed 19 people, including nine children, local officials said on Saturday. Moscow said it was targeting a military meeting.
The combined missile and drone attack on the city in the Dnipropetrovsk region injured another 72 people, Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor, said on Telegram. The attack hit close to a playground, damaging nearby buildings, he said. “Almost half of the victims were hospitalized; 17 were in serious condition,” Lysak said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack was a “precision strike with a high-explosive missile at a restaurant … where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting,” according to a post on the ministry’s Telegram channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that these strikes “cannot be accidental,” in a post on X. “The Russians know exactly what they’re hitting,” he said. “It is critically important not to leave this Russian strike on civilians, on the city — every such strike — without a response from the world,” the president said in another post.
Several European leaders condemned the attack. “Russia continues to destroy Ukraine, no interest in peace,” EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said in a post on X. She called the images from Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, “tragic and inhumane.”
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said that “this is why we need to accelerate support for Ukraine,” in a post on X. Jan Lipavský, Czechia’s foreign minister, called the attack “barbarism.”
Zelenskyy, expressed gratitude for support from European countries as well as Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland following the attack, but said he found the response from American Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink “surprisingly disappointing.”
“Such a strong country, such a strong people, and yet such a weak reaction. They are afraid to even say the word ‘Russian’ when speaking about the missile that murdered children,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
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