On the evening of April 4, Russian forces carried out a ballistic missile strike on a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 50 others, according to Ukrainian officials.
The attack reportedly targeted a civilian neighborhood, damaging multiple multi-story apartment buildings and igniting fires across the area. Emergency services continue search-and-rescue operations at the scene.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the strike in a statement released shortly after the attack, calling it a direct assault on a civilian population.
“A Russian missile hit an ordinary city. Just a street. A residential area,” Zelensky said. “Preliminary information indicates it was a ballistic missile. As of now, 14 people have been killed, including six children. My condolences to the families and loved ones.”
Ukrainian authorities suspect the use of a Russian Iskander ballistic missile equipped with a cluster warhead, a weapon that disperses submunitions across a wide area, increasing the potential for civilian casualties in dense urban environments.
Photographs released by the Office of the President show buildings with collapsed facades, shattered windows, and smoke rising from the rubble. At least five residential buildings were damaged in the blast, officials said.
The April 4 strike follows another attack on Kryvyi Rih just two days earlier, which killed four and injured 14. That earlier strike also damaged civilian housing.
The latest attack underscores a growing pattern of Russian missile and drone strikes targeting urban centers well beyond the front lines. Many of these attacks, including those on cities like Dnipro, Odesa, and Kharkiv, have struck civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, and public facilities.
Ukrainian analysts and officials say the strikes appear aimed at intimidating the population and pressuring Ukrainian authorities by inflicting mass civilian casualties and destabilizing rear areas far from active combat zones.
There has been no official comment from the Russian Ministry of Defense on the strike in Kryvyi Rih.