Officials say a Russian strike in central Ukraine kills 14 people and injures 50

Russian missile strike kills 14 in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, as U.S. and Europe urge ceasefire acceptance.

A Russian ballistic missile strike on Friday (April 4, 2025) on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 14 people and injured more than 50, Ukrainian officials said, as U.S. and European leaders pressed Russia to accept a ceasefire in the conflict.

Six children were among those killed in the strike on the Dnipropetrovsk region city — the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — in what the region's leader Serhii Lysak described as an "assault against civilians.”

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

Mr. Zelenskyy blamed the daily strikes on Russia’s unwillingness to end the war: “Every missile, every drone strike proves Russia wants only war.” He urged Ukraine’s allies to increase pressure on Moscow and bolster Ukraine’s air defenses.

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

The missile strike followed a drone attack late on Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, that killed five civilians. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.

Some of the 32 wounded, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.