Russian missile attack on Ukraine kills at least 10 in Zelenskyy’s hometown

Associated Press

Kyiv, (Ukraine): Russian missiles rained down in a central Ukrainian city overnight, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than two dozen in a warehouse and an apartment building, regional officials said Tuesday.

The attack in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, comes as Ukrainian forces are in the early stages of a counteroffensive, more than 15 months after Russia invaded. Russian forces have unleashed overnight missile strikes repeatedly against targets across Ukraine in recent weeks, and Tuesday’s toll was among the highest from a single attack.

In late April, missile strikes hit an apartment building in the central city of Uman, killing 23 people, including six children. Images from the latest missile attack relayed by Zelenskyy on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling a blaze as flames poked through broken windows in the damaged apartment building. Charred and damaged vehicles littered the nearby ground.

“More terrorist missiles,” he wrote. “Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.” The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram that the bodies of seven people were recovered from a private company’s warehouse, and “another four destinies were cut short” at the apartment building. He said search operations had been called off. Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on the social media app that 28 people were wounded.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its military fired missiles at Ukrainian operational reserves and a depot with Western weapons and ammunition. It said all targeted facilities were hit. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s secondlargest city, meanwhile, was attacked with Iranian-made Shahed drones, and the surrounding region was shelled, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

The shelling wounded two civilians in the town of Shevchenkove, southeast of Kharkiv. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, separately reported early Tuesday that the drone strike damaged a utilities business and a warehouse in the city’s northeast. Neither Terekhov nor Syniehubov referenced any casualties within Kharkiv.

The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital came under fire as well on Tuesday, but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defenses and there were no immediate reports of any casualties there. Air defenses overnight shot down 10 out of 14 cruise missiles and one of four Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russian forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said on its Facebook page.