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At least five, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed after missile strikes on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the country's emergency services said Monday (July 31).
In a video posted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, smoke was seen billowing from a multi-storey building. According to reports, a four-storey building had been almost levelled.
Monday morning. Regions of Ukraine are being shelled by the occupiers, who continue to terrorize peaceful cities and people. Kryvyi Rih, Kherson. Residential buildings, a university building, a crossroads were hit. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. There may be people… pic.twitter.com/goMVBbCN1B
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 31, 2023
Initially, reports suggested two casualties, with interior minister Ihor Klymenko saying on television that several people were under the rubble. The minister also said that the general prosecutor's office said 25 people had been wounded, including children.
Later, the emergency services updated the death toll. The number of those who were wounded is more than 40.
Two missiles landed close to the centre of Kryvyi Rig just after 9:00 am (0600 GMT), Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the deceased included a 10-year-old girl and her 45-year-old mother.
Oleksiy Kuleba, who is the deputy head of Zelensky's office, said: "Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days."
Kuleba said targeting civilians was a sign of "the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front".
Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian President's Office, posted on Telegram on Monday that Russian shelling on the city of Kherson has killed at least four people and injured more than 15.
Yermak wrote: "The enemy is hitting residential areas. The Korabelny district and the central part of the city suffered the most. There are 4 dead and 17 wounded as of now."
Oleksandr Prokudin, who is the head of the Kherson region military administration, wrote in a telegram post on Monday: "Such intensity of shelling is due to the rotation of enemy troops on the left bank [of the Dnipro river]. Russia has replenished its forces that our Armed Forces had previously destroyed."
Meanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday that Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure in response to attacks on Russian-controlled territory.
Shoigu said, “Against the background of the failure of the so-called 'counteroffensive', Kyiv... has focused on carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure. The intensity of our strikes against Ukrainian military facilities... has been considerably increased.”
Disclaimer: “A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. ”
