Russia comments on Krivoy Rog strike

Ukrainian and Western service members were killed in the attack on Friday, the Defense Ministry said

Russia has said that it carried out a missile strike on military personnel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog on Friday evening. 

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, its target was “a meeting place of commanders of military units and Western instructors in one of the restaurants.”

Up to 85 Ukrainian and foreign soldiers and officers were killed, and up to 20 vehicles were damaged, the MOD said. 

Ukrainian officials reported that the missile struck a residential area, damaging several apartment blocks. Aleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Krivoy Rog defense council, said that 18 civilians were killed, including nine children, and 56 people were wounded.

Dmitry Lubinets, Ukraine’s top human rights official, denied that military sites were present in the area. 

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Russia maintains that it only strikes military targets. Between March 29 and April 4, Moscow conducted seven “group strikes” on command centers, military airfields, weapons factories, and ammunition depots, the MOD said. 

The ministry added that Ukraine carried out six attacks on “the elements of Russia’s energy infrastructure” over the last 24 hours, in violation of the moratorium brokered by the US last month. 

The Ukrainian troops continued shelling civilian targets on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others, Russian officials said.