A Russian missile attack against the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 16 people and left dozens injured, said Ukrainian officials.
Six of the dead were children, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up in Kryvyi Rih. The city defense manager Oleksandr Vilkul said that a ballistic missile had landed in a residential area.
The images showed at least one victim lying in a playground, while a video showed a large part of a block of 10 floors destroyed and victims lying on the road.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had targeted a meeting of military unit and “officers of foreign countries”, and up to 85 died. He has provided no evidence.
The attack, early Friday evening, was among the deadliest of Kryvyi Rih since the start of the large-scale invasion of Russia in 2022, and intervenes when US President Donald Trump pushes for a cease-fire.
Zelensky wrote on social networks that at least five buildings had been damaged in Friday’s strike: “There is only one reason why it continues: Russia does not want to cease it, and we see it.”
Kryvyi Rih’s regional chief Serhii Lysak said that more than 40 people had been treated for injuries and that the youngest was only three months old.
Friday, military leaders of the United Kingdom and France met Zelensky in kyiv to discuss the plans of foreign peacekeepers to be stationed in Ukraine as part of a potential ceasefire agreement.
But there have been few signs of reducing violence.
Kryvyi Rih was also attacked earlier this week when a center building was struck, killing four people.
Earlier Friday, Russian drone strikes in the northeast city of Kharkiv won five other lives.
France and the United Kingdom accused Russia of dragging its feet on the Ukrainian peace agreement. British Foreign Minister David Lammy told journalists at a NATO summit in Brussels that the Russian chief “could accept a cease-fire now, (but) he continues to bomb Ukraine, his civilian population”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Russians knew the American position, “and we will soon know about their answers, if they are serious at the idea of making real peace or if it is a delay tactic”.
Kryvyi Rih is around 40 miles (70 km) from the first line in eastern Ukraine and with a population of 600,000 inhabitants, it is deemed to be the longest city in Europe.
