KYIV: Ukraine on Saturday mourned 18 people, including nine children, killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s home city of Kryvyi Rig, as the region\u2019s governor said it was \u201cthe kind of pain you wouldn\u2019t wish on your worst enemy.\u201d
\nSixty-one people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said after emergency operations were completed overnight.
\nThe missile attack on Friday, one of the deadliest in recent weeks, struck a residential area near a children\u2019s playground, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig\u2019s military administration.
\n\u201cOn 7, 8 and 9 April, days of mourning will be declared in Kryvyi Rig for those killed as a result of yesterday\u2019s terrorist attacks on our city by the killer country,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cChildren, families, the elderly… Ballistic missile and shakedown attacks on residential areas and playgrounds… This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians.\u201d
\nPictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
\n\u201cThis is the kind of pain you wouldn\u2019t wish on your worst enemy,\u201d Lysak said.
\nRussia\u2019s defense ministry said it \u201cdelivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile on a restaurant\u201d in the city \u201cwhere commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.\u201d
\nIt said its air defense units had intercepted and destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones overnight.
\nThe commander of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was \u201ctrying to cover up its cynical crime\u201d and \u201cspreading false information\u201d about the target of the strike.
\nHe accused Russia of \u201cwar crimes.\u201d
\nThe Ukrainian air force said on Saturday Russia had launched 92 drones across Ukraine overnight.
\nFifty one had been shot down and around 30 others had landed without causing damage.
\nUS President Donald Trump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
\nZelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
\n\u201cThere is only one reason why this continues \u2014 Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe missile struck an area near residential buildings, a playground and ordinary streets.
\n\u201cPeople who are capable of that kind of thing aren\u2019t human, They are bastards,\u201d Zelensky said.
\nZelensky on Friday met the heads of the British and French military in Kyiv to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a \u201creassurance\u201d force to Ukraine if and when a peace deal is reached.
\nThis is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.
\n\u201cTogether, we want to guarantee a lasting and solid peace in Ukraine, an essential condition for the security of the European continent,\u201d Thierry Burkhard, chief of the French defense staff, said on X on Saturday.
\nBurkhard and his British counterpart, Tony Radakin, also met their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Syrsky and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
\nKryvyi Rig, in Ukraine\u2019s central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
\nZelensky was born in the industrial city, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV: Ukraine on Saturday mourned 18 people, including nine children, killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s home city of Kryvyi Rig, as the region\u2019s governor said it was \u201cthe kind of pain you wouldn\u2019t wish on your worst enemy.\u201d Sixty-one people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n