A Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's home city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people on Friday, among them nine children, authorities said.
The missile struck a residential area near a children's playground and wounded more than two dozen others, according to the head of the city's military administration.
Unverified videos on social media appeared to show bodies lying on a street, while another showed a plume of smoke rising into the evening sky.
"18... that is how many people were killed by the Russians when they launched a missile at Kryvyi Rig. Among them were nine children," Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram.
He said 61 people were injured in the attack, among them 12 children.
"This is the kind of pain you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy," Lysak added.
Russia's Ministry of Defence said it "delivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile at a restaurant" in the city "where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting".
In separate drone attack on Kryvyi Rig, Lysak said one additional person was killed and three others injured.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office, but his administration has failed to broker a ceasefire despite talks with both sides.
Zelensky said the attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
"There is only one reason why this continues -- Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it," he said.
The Ukrainian leader was born in Kryvyi Rig, an industrial city which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire in March, while the Kremlin has made a US-proposed truce in the Black Sea dependent on the West lifting certain sanctions.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier on Friday that Trump was not "going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations" with Russia over the invasion.
"We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not," he said.
Kryvyi Rig, in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
With AFP
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