At least 10 people were killed in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown by Russian missile strikes in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The attack, which hit the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, caused major damage to a multi-story residential building. Video footage and photographs show the building left in tatters with shattered glass, burned-out balconies, and surrounding trees completely scorched.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak described how the five-story building was completely consumed by flames.
The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Vilkil, confirmed on Telegram that at least six people were killed, with seven others believed to be trapped beneath the rubble. More than two dozen others were also believed to be injured as of Tuesday morning. Later reports, however, confirmed that as of 1 pm local time, at least 10 people were killed in the strike and 28 injured.
President Zelenskyy responded to the strikes, describing them as “terrorist” attacks.
“More terrorist missiles,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.”
The strikes come as Russian President Vladimir Putin says his military will consider establishing a “sanitary zone” in Ukraine designed to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory.
Ukraine Makes Gains In South
Ukraine’s counteroffensive may already be paying dividends, with reports on June 13 revealing how Ukrainian forces made some of their biggest advances in the war for the past seven months. Reuters journalists described how a Ukrainian flag was seen flying over the recently liberated village of Neskuchne in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The reporters, who reached the village days after Kyiv confirmed it had reclaimed the territory, noted that Russia has yet to admit that the village – now completely destroyed by warfare – had been captured by the Ukrainians.
One member of a Ukrainian territorial defense unit told the reporters that Russian forces were present in the village only three days earlier, but that they had been “chased” out of the area. The report was the first independent confirmation of Ukraine’s advances in the region, roughly 90km to the southwest of Donetsk City.
And, while Putin has largely dismissed Ukraine’s counteroffensive as ineffective so far, the Russian president has acknowledged that his military has lost a significant quantity of tanks and other pieces of military hardware in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
