KYIV
\nA Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s home city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people on Friday, among them nine children, authorities said.
\nThe missile struck a residential area near a children\u2019s playground and wounded more than two dozen others, according to the head of the city\u2019s military administration.
\nUnverified videos on social media appeared to show bodies lying on a street, while another showed a plume of smoke rising into the evening sky.
\n\u201c18… that is how many people were killed by the Russians when they launched a missile at Kryvyi Rig. Among them were nine children,\u201d Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram.
\nHe said 61 people were injured in the attack, among them 12 children.
\n\u201cThis is the kind of pain you wouldn\u2019t wish on your worst enemy,\u201d Lysak added.
\nRussia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said it \u201cdelivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile at a restaurant\u201d in the city \u201cwhere commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting\u201d.
\nIn separate drone attack on Kryvyi Rig, Lysak said one additional person was killed and three others injured.
\nUS President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office, but his administration has failed to broker a ceasefire despite talks with both sides.
\nZelensky said the 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 — Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it,\u201d he said.
\nThe Ukrainian leader was born in Kryvyi Rig, an industrial city which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire in March, while the Kremlin has made a US-proposed truce in the Black Sea dependent on the West lifting certain sanctions.
\nUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier on Friday that Trump was not \u201cgoing to fall into the trap of endless negotiations\u201d with Russia over the invasion.
\n\u201cWe will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not,\u201d he said.
\n– \u2018War crime\u2019 –
\nKryvyi Rig, in Ukraine\u2019s central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
\nOleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city\u2019s military administration, said the missile landed near a children\u2019s playground.
\nFive apartment buildings were damaged, interior minister Igor Klymenko said.
\nHe said police had blocked off the area to maintain order.
\n\u201cThe police are documenting the consequences of Russia\u2019s war crime and accepting statements from the victims,\u201d Klymenko added.
\nSocial media video from the scene showed a car in flames, while people could be heard shouting.
\nAndriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian official tasked with countering disinformation, described the missile involved in the attack as an \u201cIskander\u201d.
\nThe Iskander is a Russian ballistic missile system that can have a range of up to 500 kilometres (311 miles).
\n\u201cThis is a deliberate strike to kill a large number of people,\u201d Kovalenko said.
\nZelensky accused Russia of regarding diplomacy as an \u201cempty word\u201d in his evening address. \u201cA ceasefire could have been reached by now and it is Putin who rejects it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV A Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s home city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people on Friday, among them nine children, authorities said. The missile struck a residential area near a children\u2019s playground and wounded more than two dozen others, according to the head of the city\u2019s military administration. Unverified videos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n