(Reuters) – A ballistic missile hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding 15 others, four of them in serious condition, officials said.
Ukrainian officials denounced the Christmas Eve attack on the city, the birthplace of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on the Telegram application: “The monsters fell with a direct hit on a four-story residential building with 32 apartments.”
Region Governor Serhiy Lysak said that a man whose body was recovered from under the rubble was unable to be revived by paramedics.
Vilkul later said that a woman was rescued and taken to hospital after spending four hours under the rubble.
“While other countries in the world celebrate Christmas, Ukrainians continue to suffer from endless Russian attacks,” Dmytro Lobinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, wrote on Telegram.
Governor Lisak posted photos of rescuers searching through a large pile of rubble, pulling out a person covered in dust and placing him in an ambulance.
Kryvyi Rih is a steel-making town with a pre-war population of over 600,000.
Its southern suburbs lie about 40 miles (65 km) from the nearest Russian-occupied area, and were the target of regular 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.
