‘Massive' Russian missile attack on Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih city

A “massive missile attack” by Russian forces has hit several civilian buildings, including a five-storey apartment building, in Kryvyi Rih city in central Ukraine, causing death, injuries and serious damage to infrastructure, according to local officials.

“There are dead and wounded,” Serhiy Lisak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, said on the Telegram messaging app early on Tuesday morning.

“A massive missile attack on Kryvyi Rih,” he said.

Lisak posted a photograph of a five-storey apartment building with all windows blown out and smoke coming out of some.

Kryvyi Rih is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown. The city was hit by a Russian missile in December that left three people dead and at least 13 wounded.

The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said earlier on Tuesday that people were likely trapped beneath the rubble of buildings hit in the latest attack.

Video footage shared on social media and said to feature the Kryvyi Rih attack showed residential apartments damaged and rubble and fires in other areas.

The capital Kyiv also came under missile and drone attack early on Tuesday morning but air defence systems destroyed all objects heading towards the city, military officials said.

“According to initial reports, the enemy used Kh-101/555 cruise missiles,” Kyiv city military administration said.

“All enemy targets in the airspace around Kyiv were detected and successfully destroyed by the forces and means of air defence,” the administration said, adding there was no immediate information on any casualties or damage.

Ukraine’s top military command said that air forces destroyed 10 out of 14 cruise missiles Russia launched against Ukraine on Tuesday and one of four Iranian-made drones.

It was not immediately clear how many missiles hit Kryvyi Rih and where the Russia-launched drones struck their targets.

In Kharkiv, civilian infrastructure was hit by drone, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

“According to initial reports, a utility company in the Kyivskyi district, as well as a warehouse in Saltivskyi district got damaged. A fire broke out as a result of the explosion on the latter,” he said.

The latest wave of air attacks comes as Ukraine claimed to have retaken several villages and made advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces.