By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-04-05 19:25:10 | Updated at 2025-04-06 11:24:25
16 hours ago
Russia targeted the home city of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky overnight Saturday, in a ballistic missile strike that killed at least 19 people, including nine children — one of the deadliest attacks on the frontline metropolis since the war began.
A residential neighborhood was leveled during the onslaught on Kryvyi Rih, where at least 72 people were also injured, one of the youngest among them a 3-month-old baby, officials said.
“There were dead children lying there, crying parents — it was horrible,” a 47-year-old woman named Yulia told Reuters.
Zelensky remembered the youngest of the dead Saturday.
“Three-year-old Timofiy, unfortunately, died today in the hospital. Seven-year-old Radyslav. Arina, who will also be 7 forever. Nine-year-old German. Fifteen-year-old Danylo. Fifteen-year-old Nikita. Fifteen-year-old Alina. Konstantin, who will be 16 forever. Nikita is 17 years old,” he wrote Saturday on X of the youngest of the dead.
“There is simply no deeper level of cynicism, vileness, or hatred toward people than what Russia embodies today,” Zelensky added.
The Iskander-M — a short-range ballistic missile — also left a gaping crater in the city, damaged two dozen apartment buildings, six educational institutions, more than 30 cars, shops and a restaurant, Kryvyi Rih Gov. Serhii Lysak posted on social media.
“This can never be forgiven,” Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Russian officials claimed the attack killed 85 and was a high-precision strike on a restaurant where a gathering of military commanders and Western instructors were meeting, according to reports.
But the Ukrainian Armed Forces debunked the claims as “false information” in an attempt to “cover up its cynical crime.”
The military said on Facebook that Russia fired a warhead that was “intended to affect a larger area and a larger number of people.”
Kryvyi Rih, the second-largest city in the Dnipropetrovsk region, has been a frequent target of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A later drone strike on the city also killed a woman, 56, and injured seven others.
In total, Russian forces launched 92 drones into Ukraine overnight, with 51 shot down by air defenses, the air force said Saturday.
“There is only one reason why this continues: Russia does not want a ceasefire,” Zelensky said in a statement Friday. “Every missile, every strike drone proves that Russia only wants war.”
He called on world powers to continue pressuring Russia. Zelensky thanked foreign ministers and embassies for their support following the latest attacks — but criticized the US Embassy’s “surprisingly disappointing” response, which did not mention Russia by name.
“Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih,” Bridget Brink, US ambassador to Ukraine, posted on X Friday.
“This is why the war must end,” she added.
“Such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky responded on X. “They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed children.
“Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.”
Brink spent Friday in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv assessing US aid to the region and visiting an underground school “to ensure Ukraine’s children have access to safe, in-person learning in the face of Russian attacks,” she said in a separate post.
Meanwhile, at a NATO convention that concluded in Brussels on Friday, world leaders repeated demands for Putin to respond to the ceasefire deal that the US and Ukraine have already agreed to.
Countries that have pledged to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire — dubbed a “coalition of the willing” — will meet again on Thursday at the Brussels headquarters, according to the UK Joint Delegation to NATO.
With Post wires
