Officials say that the Russian strike in the center of Ukraine kills 14 and injures 50

By Lorne Cook and Illia Novikov, Associated Press

Kyiv, Ukraine (AP)-A Russian ballistic missile strike on Friday in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 14 people and injured more than 50 years, said Ukrainian officials, while American and European leaders pressed Russia to accept a cease-fire in the conflict.

Six children were one of the people killed in the city’s city strike strike – the hometown of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – in what the head of the Serhii Lysak region described as an “aggression against civilians”.

“A Russian missile in an ordinary city. Just in a street. In an area with residential buildings,” wrote Zelenskyy on Telegram. At least five buildings were damaged in the attack and rescue operations were underway, he said.

Zelenskyy blamed daily strikes in the reluctance of Russia to end the war: “Each missile, each drone strike proves that Russia only wants war.” He urged Ukrainian allies to increase the pressure on Moscow and strengthen Ukraine air defenses.

“The United States, Europe and the rest of the world have enough power for Russia to abandon terror and war,” he said.

The missile strike followed a drone attack Thursday evening on Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, which killed five civilians. The emergency crews transported black body bags to a building of fire apartments while the spectators were crying and hugged in darkness.

Some of the 32 injured, bloody and shocked, drink in the street or were transported on civilians while the flames pulled from the windows of their houses.

“Now I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war,” said Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to Kharkiv’s strike. “We have to take Russia seriously about peace. We have to put pressure on Russia in peace. “

Russia has actually rejected an American proposal for a complete and immediate 30-day judgment in fighting, and the ministers of the United Kingdom and French foreign affairs accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in the ceasefire to stop the invasion of Ukraine.

“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obscure, continues to drag his feet,” said British Foreign Minister David Lammy, to journalists at the NATO headquarters, alongside the French counterpart Jean-No-No Barrot in a symbolic demonstration of unity.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia’s real intentions will become clear in a few weeks.

“We will soon know about their answers, if they are serious about the idea of ​​making real peace or if it is a tactic of delay,” Rubio told journalists. “We have now reached the stadium where we have to progress.”

A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for interviews with officials of the Trump administration said on Friday that new meetings would be necessary to solve the outstanding problems.

Kirill Dmitriev told Russian journalists that “dialogue would take some time, but it takes place positively and constructively”.

He criticized what he called a “well coordinated media campaign and tries various politicians to spoil the relations of Russia-United States, to distort what Russia says, and to throw Russia and its leaders in a negative way.”

DMITRIEV, head of the Sovereign Heritage Fund for Russia, was sanctioned by the Biden administration after Moscow launched the large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The United States had to temporarily relaunch the restrictions to allow him to go to Washington this week.

Civil zones of three other Ukrainian regions were also affected in Russian attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia had pulled 78 strike drones and lure. The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses had destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.

“We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing,” said Lammy.

Plans for the offensive on the ground

The Russian forces are preparing to launch a new military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize the pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin negotiation position in cease-fire talks, according to the Ukrainian government and Western military analysts.

The planned multi-plated ground offensive along the front line of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) occurs while the muddy fields dry out, which will allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to drive in key positions across the countryside.

The United Kingdom and France contribute to directing a multinational effort known as “coalition of wills” to set up a force that could control any future peace agreement in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said earlier this week that between 10 and 12 countries said they were ready to join the coalition.

“ Russia was a task ”

Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted conditions of ceasefire three weeks ago and that Russia “now owes a response to the United States”.

US President Donald Trump expressed his frustration with regard to Putin and Zelenskyy, after promising last year to bring the war to a rapid conclusion.

“Russia has been a task, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes,” said Barrot. “It must be” yes “. He must be “no”. It must be a quick response.

He said that Russia has been showing no intention to stop its military campaign, noting that Putin ordered an appeal on Monday to write 160,000 conscripts for a one -year visit to compulsory military service.

The two foreign ministers have undertaken to continue to help build up the armed forces of Ukraine – the best security guarantee of the country since the United States took any prospect of membership in NATO outside the table.

Moscow’s measured approach to cease-fire negotiations did not surprise Western observers, because his army has a momentum on the battlefield.

An annual evaluation of annual threats from the United States Community, published last month, noted that for Russia, “the positive trends in the battlefield allow a certain strategic patience”.

“Russia in the past year has seized the upper hand in … Ukraine and is about to accumulate a greater lever effect to press kyiv and its Western donors to negotiate the end of the war which grants to the Moscow concessions that it is looking for,” said the report.

On Friday, the coalition army leaders were to meet in Kyiv. The group’s defense ministers will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday.

Russia rebuilt its soldiers

General Christopher Cavoli, the best American general in Europe, said on Thursday at an audience in front of the American Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that Russia also reconstructs its military force.

Russian forces on the front line in Ukraine now have more than 600,000 soldiers, he said. This is the highest number of war and almost double the size of the initial invasion force, he said, and Russia is on the right track to replace all tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems that it has lost so far.

In addition, Russia said Cavoli, Russia should produce 250,000 artillery shells per month, allowing it to build a stock three times larger than those in the United States and combined Europe.

Lorne Cook reported in Brussels.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 10:59 a.m.