Death toll in Russian missile strike in central Ukraine reaches 18

KYIV, Ukraine — The death toll from a Russian missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has risen to 18, including nine children, regional governor Serhii Lysak said Saturday.

An additional 72 people were injured in Friday’s attack, ranging from a 3-month-old baby to elderly residents. About half of those wounded remain hospitalized, with 17 in serious condition.

“There can never be forgiveness for this,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council. “Eternal memory to the victims.”

Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The missile struck an area right next to residential buildings — hitting a playground and ordinary streets,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Local authorities said the strike damaged about 20 apartment buildings, more than 30 vehicles, an educational building and a restaurant.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it had carried out a high-precision missile strike with a high explosive warhead on a restaurant where a meeting with unit commanders and Western instructors was taking place.

The Russian military said the strike killed 85 military personnel and foreign officers and destroyed 20 vehicles. The military’s claims could not be independently verified. The Ukrainian General Staff rejected the claims.

A later drone strike on Kryvyi Rih killed one woman and wounded seven other people.

Zelensky blamed the daily strikes on Russia’s unwillingness to end the war. “Every missile, every drone strike proves Russia wants only war,” he said, urging Ukraine’s allies to increase pressure on Moscow and bolster Ukraine’s air defenses.

The Ukrainian president also criticized the response of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to the strike. Ambassador Bridget A. Brink posted on social media Friday that she was “horrified” by the strike in Kryvyi Rih. “More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end,” the post said.

Zelensky, who has had a strained relationship with President Trump, described the post as “unpleasantly surprising” for not directly naming Russia as the perpetrator of the attack.

“Such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction. They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed children,” he said in the post, which praised other countries including Japan, Britain, Switzerland and Germany for their “principled statements.”

“Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade,” he said.

Russian forces launched 92 drones into Ukraine overnight, with 51 shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force wrote on social media Saturday. An additional 31 decoy drones also failed to reach their targets, it said.

Elsewhere, one person died Saturday in shelling in the Russian-occupied town of Horlivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Moscow-installed Gov. Denis Pushilin said. Security officials told Russian state news channels that they had destroyed 28 Ukrainian drones over the Donetsk region overnight, marking the first time that the occupied territory had been targeted by such long-range strikes.