Five people, including a 10-year-old girl and her mother, have been killed in a Russian missile strike on the home city of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At least 53 people were also injured when the missile struck a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy, who grew up in the city, shared a defiant message on social media in the aftermath of the attack, writing: “This terror will not frighten us or break us.”
It comes as Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Ukraine was “desperately throwing” large numbers of troops at its lines and that this proved its counteroffensive was “failing”.
Mr Shoigu also claimed Russian troops had killed 20,000 Ukrainian troops in the past month alone.
Ukraine war latest: ‘Failing’ Ukraine ‘desperately throwing troops’ at enemy lines
In other developments in the Ukraine war:
• A Kremlin spokesperson said NATO was “wasting” its resources by sending weapons and supplies to Ukraine
• However, a Ukrainian official said its forces had claimed back two square kilometres of territory near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past week
• Another official claimed Russia was suffering major logistical issues due to recent explosions on bridges to Crimea
• The mayor of Russian-controlled Donetsk claimed two people were killed after a Ukrainian shell hit a bus.
The Ukrainian defence ministry confirmed on Monday that 53 people had been injured in the missile strike on Kryvyi Rih.
The ministry also confirmed previously unverified reports that the 10-year-old child killed was a girl – and that she died alongside her 45-year-old mother.
The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, confirmed the “tragic news” of the deaths on Telegram.
Air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said the attack appeared to have been carried out with ballistic missiles.
In Russian-controlled Donetsk, two people died in Ukrainian shelling, claimed Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed mayor of the city.
Mr Pushilin said the casualties occurred when Ukrainian shells hit a civilian bus.
“As a result of the shelling, a passenger bus was destroyed,” he said.
The mayor also said six people were being treated for injuries sustained in the blast.
A tearful resident at the site of the missile strike in Kryvyi Rih
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence minister, Mr Shoigu, who last month was one of the chief targets of a coup launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries, praised his forces’ effectiveness against Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
He pointed to what he called the successful defence of Orekhovskaya from a “large-scale” Ukrainian operation as an example of Kyiv wasting resources.
Mr Shoigu also said more than 20,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the past month alone, and claimed the number of young men enrolling in Russian military colleges has increased dramatically in recent months.
A burnt-out bus following shelling in Donetsk
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine’s counteroffensive showed no signs of any success and that Kyiv was now in a “difficult position”.
Mr Peskov said NATO was “wasting” its resources by sending weapons and supplies into Ukraine due to this lack of success on the battlefield.
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He also discussed the potential of Saudi Arabia mediating peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
It comes after The Wall Street Journal reported the Saudi Arabian government was considering inviting a number of Western states, Ukraine and developing countries to hold talks on the war.
Ukraine and the West hope the possible discussions, which would exclude Russia, could lead to international backing for peace terms favouring Ukraine, the newspaper said.
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However, Mr Peskov said the Kremlin needed to gain an “understanding of the aims of the talks” before commenting further.
This story originally appeared on Skynews
