Three days of mourning start in Kryvyi Rih – as UN condemns ‘reckless disregard for civilians’
Vigils are being held in Kryvyi Rih today as the city starts three days of mourning after one of the deadliest attacks on Ukrainian civilians in months.
A Russian missile that hit the hometown of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday killed 11 adults and nine children, according to local authorities.
Ukraine’s military said it was a cluster munitions attack, with the strike spraying shrapnel across a dense residential area.
The ages of the victims ranged from three to 79, Kryvyi Rih’s mayor said, adding that 33 people, including four children, were still being treated in hospital.
Local clergymen held a memorial service at a playground near
the strike site, and
separately residents bid farewell to a nine-year-old boy said to
have been killed while playing on a swing.
‘A reckless disregard for civilian life’
Russia said, without evidence, that its “high-precision strike” targeted a military gathering of “unit commanders and Western instructors”, killing up to 85 of them, a claim rejected by Kyiv as disinformation.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk has called for a “prompt, thorough and independent” investigation into the attack.
“The use of an explosive weapon with wide area effects by
the Russian Federation in a densely populated area – and without
any apparent military presence – demonstrates a reckless
disregard for civilian life,” he said.
“Even if the Russian authorities had had information that
military personnel could be present, the mode and circumstances
of attack may constitute an indiscriminate attack,” the UN rights office added.