 "Ukrainian servicemen of 117th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade sit in the dugout after firing from their AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle towards Russian positions at the front line on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. Image- AP")
At least one person was killed and 11 injured by a ballistic missile strike on an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.
“Unfortunately, we are preparing for difficult news,” Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul wrote on his Telegram channel.
Minutes before his post, Ukraine’s air force alerted a “ballistic missile strike threat” for southern and central regions of Ukraine, later signaling a “high-speed” target flying in the direction of Kryvyi Rih.
”The monsters landed a direct hit on a four-storey residential block with 32 apartments,” the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.
One man whose body had been pulled from under the rubble could not be revived by medics, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
”While other countries of the world are celebrating Christmas, Ukrainians are continuing to suffer from endless Russian attacks,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.
Governor Lysak posted photographs of rescuers trawling through a large pile of rubble, recovering a person covered in dust and loading them into an ambulance.
”There may still be people under the rubble,” he wrote shortly before 18:00 local time (1600 GMT), more than two hours after the strike.
Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is a steelmaking city with a pre-war population of more than 600,000.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIts southern outskirts lie about 40 miles (65 km) from the nearest Russian-occupied territory, and it has regularly been the target of Russian missile attacks throughout the war.
Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians, although thousands have been killed since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022.
With inputs from agencies.