Russia Attacks President Zelensky’s Home City

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 16 people and left dozens of others wounded, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.

Six of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in Kryvyi Rih.

Images from the scene showed at least one victim lying in a playground cordoned off by police. The head of the city’s defence administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said a ballistic missile had landed in the centre of a residential area.

One video showed a large section of a 10-storey block of flats obliterated by the attack and victims lying on the road outside.

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 regional leader in Kryvyi Rih said more than 40 people were treated for wounds, and the youngest was only three months old.

Military chiefs from both the UK and France met Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday 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.

Kryvyi Rih also came under attack earlier this week when a building in the centre was struck, leaving four people dead.

Earlier on Friday, Russian drone strikes on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv claimed another five lives.