Rescue workers were scrambling through rubble searching for survivors Monday after Russian missiles slammed into the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing at least five people and injuring dozens more in the hometown of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, authorities said.
The attack came a day after three Ukrainian drones damaged buildings in Moscow, prompting Zelenskyy to say it was “inevitable, natural and … fair” to bring the war to Russian land.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said at least 53 people were injured, including five children, in the attack on Kryvyi Rih. A nine-story apartment building and a four-story building at a university were severely damaged in the city of more than 600,000 people, authorities said.
“During the search and rescue operation, a damaged building collapsed, and there may still be people under the concrete debris,” Lubinets said on Telegram. “The murdering country will be held accountable before the court for what it has done.
“We will not forgive.”
Governor Serhiy Lysak said 150 people fled the apartment building while rescuers extricated more than 30 from the wreckage.
Russian missiles and attack drones have routinely blasted residential and commercial buildings across Ukraine since the war began more than 17 months ago. Those attacks have stepped up in recent days amid a string of far less damaging Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow and Crimea that the Kremlin has branded as “terrorism.”
“The enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centers, shelling civilian objects and housing,” Zelneskyy said. “But this terror will not frighten us or break us.”
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Developments:
∎ Ukraine’s birth rate fell by 28% in the first six months of 2023 compared to the first six months of 2022, the Ukraine data firm Opendatabot reported. The biggest previous decline also came during war, the firm reported: After Russia attacked and seized Crimea birth rates fell by about 12% in 2015.
∎ Russia has forcibly mobilized up to 60,000 men in occupied territories since the war began, Ukraine military spokesperson Andrii Cherniak said. “They simply dressed the people up and sent them to the front,” Cherniak told Donbas Realii.
∎ The Russian mercenary Wagner Group says it has suspended recruitment of new members citing a “large personnel reserve.”
∎ China tightened export controls on civilian drones Monday to ensure they are not used for military purposes in Ukraine or elsewhere. The new rules make clear that drones can’t be exported if the exporter knows − or should have known − the drones could be used for military purposes.
‘The front is a disgrace’:Prigozhin says Wagner troops won’t fight in Ukraine now. Live updates.
Russian lawmaker says US could escalate Ukraine war in 2024
Both major U.S. political parties could escalate the war in order to get additional votes in the 2024 elections, a top Russian lawmaker said Monday. In an interview with Russia’s Arguments and Facts, Konstantin Kosachev, vice speaker of the Federation Council, warned Russians that Democrats and Republicans won’t hesitate to use foreign policy to gain traction with the electorate.
“The U.S presidential campaign, which will culminate in 2024, may turn out to be a very unfortunate, if not fatal circumstance,” Kosachev said. “I cannot say that there will definitely be an aggravation, but such a risk exists, it is obvious to me.”
