At least six people have died and 75 others were injured after Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the home town of President Volodymyr Zelensky, officials said.
One of the two missiles destroyed a section of the apartment building between the fourth and ninth floors, with residents trapped underneath the rubble, according to Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
Video showed black smoke billowing from corner units and burned out or damaged cars on a tree-lined street.
The dead included a 10-year-old girl and her mother, according to Mr Zelensky.
More than 350 people were involved in the rescue operation, the President said in a Telegram post.
The strike on Mr Zelensky’s hometown, which has been hit in the past, happened a day after the Ukrainian leader warned that the fighting was drawing closer to Russian land.
“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” Mr Zelensky said on Sunday in his nightly video address.
It was not clear whether the missile strikes were in retaliation for his comments.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian artillery strike on partially occupied Donetsk province killed two people and wounded six in the regional capital, according to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the illegally annexed province.
A bus was also hit as Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Donetsk multiple times on Monday, Mr Pushilin said.
In Kryvyi Rih, video showed rescue crews working through the wreckage from the part of the university building that was demolished.
Black smoke billowed from corner apartments in the apartment building. Outside, debris was strewn across the tree-lined street. Parked cars were burned out or damaged.
Kryvyi Rih has seldom been targeted by the Kremlin’s forces since the war began in February 2022.
But bombardment with missiles, artillery and drones has been a hallmark of Moscow’s tactics since the full-scale invasion, with some aerial attacks hitting civilian areas. Russian officials insist they only take aim at legitimate military targets.
That approach has continued during Kyiv’s recently launched counteroffensive that is trying to drive Russian forces out of occupied areas.
Ukraine’s president said that “in recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centres, shelling civilian objects and housing.
“But this terror will not frighten us or break us,” Mr Zelensky said in a social media statement.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has sought to take the war deep into Russia, reportedly using drones to hit targets as far away as Moscow.
The latest strike, on Sunday, damaged two office buildings a few miles from the Kremlin.
Russia has tightened security in the aftermath of the attacks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, describing the latest assault as an “act of desperation”.
“The Kyiv regime is in a very, very difficult situation,” Mr Peskov said, “as the counteroffensive is not working out as planned.”
“It’s obvious that the multibillion-dollar resources that have been transferred by Nato countries to the Kyiv regime are actually being spent inefficiently,” he said.
“This raises big questions in Western capitals and great discomfort among taxpayers in Western countries.”
Rescue operation continues in Kryvyi Rih on the site of Russian missiles' hits. Preliminary, two ballistic missiles. Floors four through nine of the residential building have been completely destroyed. The work is difficult – parts of the building's structure were falling down.… pic.twitter.com/Xa7AzkFoH4
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 31, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin, analysts say, is wagering that Western support for Kyiv will wane as the war drags on and its cost mounts.
In the southern city of Odesa, Russian strikes in recent weeks targeted port infrastructure and grain silos, after Moscow broke off an export agreement for Ukrainian grain.
Russian shelling on Monday also killed four civilians and wounded 17 in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
A 70-year-old woman was killed by shelling in her home in a Kharkiv province village near Izyum, authorities said.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry estimated on Monday that about 180,000 metric tonnes of grain have been destroyed by Russia in the past nine days.
