At least six people have been killed, including a ten-year-old child, and 75 injured after a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of President Zelensky.
Serhiy Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region military administration, said that Russian troops had fired missiles at both a residential building and an institution of higher education in Kryvyi Rih.
"It's already 6 dead in Kryvyi Rih," he said in a post on Telegram. "The number of injured individuals is currently 75, including six children. Twenty-two people are hospitalized, with two in a very serious condition."
A search and rescue operation has ended.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media on Monday morninga video showing black smoke coming out of a huge hole torn in the facade of a block of flats. The footage also shows a non-residential building that is partially destroyed.
Zelensky said that Russians are "continuing to terrorise peaceful cities and people."
Monday morning. Regions of Ukraine are being shelled by the occupiers, who continue to terrorize peaceful cities and people. Kryvyi Rih, Kherson. Residential buildings, a university building, a crossroads were hit. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. There may be people… pic.twitter.com/goMVBbCN1B
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 31, 2023
The attack resulted in the destruction of floors 4 to 9 within one entrance, followed by a fire in an apartment on the 4th floor, covering an area of approximately 70 square meters.
As the toll of the strike rose, Russia said it had intensified attacks on military infrastructure in Ukraine after increasingly frequent drone assaults blamed on Kyiv.
Russia on Sunday said it had downed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and annexed Crimea in the latest wave of drone attacks.
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Following the strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday that war was coming to Russia.
"Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia -- to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process," Zelensky said.
The Kremlin responded Monday, describing the strikes on the capital as an "act of desperation" by Ukraine following setbacks on the battlefield.
"It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not a success," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that the situation was "very difficult" for Ukrainian forces on the front.
"All possible measures have been taken to defend civil infrastructure" against Ukrainian strikes, Peskov added.
The strikes in the city also damaged an academic building, according to the head of the city's military administration Oleksandr Vilkul.
In the southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed four and injured another 17, said the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak.
"The enemy is hitting residential neighbourhoods," Yermak said.
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