A Russian ballistic missile attack killed at least 14 people and injured 50 others in central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday as the US and European leaders pushed Moscow to accept a ceasefire.
Six children were among those killed in the attack that Serhii Lysak described as an “assault against civilians.”
“A Russian missile on an ordinary city. Just on a street. In an area with residential buildings. Every missile, every drone strike proves Russia wants only war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram app. Furthermore, Zelenskiy urged Kyiv’s allies to scale up pressure on the Kremlin and to help enhance Ukraine’s air defences. “The United States, Europe, and the rest of the world have enough power to make Russia abandon terror and war,” he said.
The ballistic missile strike followed a drone attack on the night leading to Friday on Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, that killed five civilians. Thirty-two more people were injured.
"Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. "We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace."
Russia has, in practice, turned down a U.S. initiative calling for an immediate, comprehensive 30-day ceasefire. On Friday, the foreign ministers of the U.K. and France publicly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of deliberately stalling negotiations aimed at stopping Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine.
Speaking at NATO headquarters, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy - appearing alongside France’s Jean-Noël Barrot in a gesture underscoring allied solidarity - said their assessment is that Putin is continuing to evade clarity and slow-walk the ceasefire process.
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