VINNYTSIA, Ukraine: A Ukrainian city far from the frontline grieved for its dead and cleared its streets on Friday, a day after a Russian missile attack killed at least 23 people and wounded scores.
Ukraine said Thursday's strike on an office building in Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200 km southwest of Kyiv, had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.
The attack was the latest in a series of Russian strikes in recent weeks using long-range missiles on crowded buildings in cities far from the front, each killing dozens of people.
Residents placed teddy bears and flowers at a makeshift memorial near the site of the strike.
Among the dead was Lisa, a 4-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome, found in the debris next to a pram. Images of her pushing the same pram, posted by her mother on a blog less than two hours before the attack, quickly went viral.
Her severely injured mother, Iryna Dmitrieva, was being kept in an information blackout at a hospital for fear that finding out about her daughter would kill her, doctors said.
"She is suffering from burns, chest injuries, abdominal injuries, liver and spleen injuries. We have stitched the organs together, the bones were crushed as if she went through a meat grinder," Oleksandr Fomin, chief doctor at the Vinnytsia Emergency Hospital, said. Were she told of her daughter's death, "we would lose her".
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's wife, Olena, tweeted that she recognised the girl, who had once been among a group of disabled children who painted Christmas ornaments with the first lady in a holiday video.
"Look at her, alive, please," Olena Zelenska wrote.
The building housed an officers' club, which Russia's defence ministry said was being used for a meeting between military officials and foreign arms suppliers. It added: "The attack resulted in the elimination of the participants."
Ukraine said the club functioned as a cultural centre. The building also housed shops, commercial offices and a concert hall, where musicians were rehearsing for a pop concert planned for that night. A nearby medical centre was also destroyed.
Zelenskiy called Russia a terrorist state, urged more sanctions against the Kremlin and said the death toll in Vinnytsia could rise.
"Unfortunately, this is not the final number. Debris clearance continues. Dozens of people are reported missing. There are seriously injured (people) among those hospitalised,” he said in a video address to an international conference aimed at prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.
Authorities in the southern city of Mykolaiv, closer to the frontlines, reported fresh Russian strikes on Friday morning which wounded at least two people. They released video pictures of firefighters battling the blaze in the rubble.
"This time, they hit Mykolaiv around 7:50 am, knowing full well that there were already many people on the streets at that time. Real terrorists!" Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych posted on social media.
Despite the bloodshed, both sides have described important progress in recent days towards an agreement that would lift a blockade that has restricted the export of Ukrainian grain. Mediator Turkey has said a deal could be signed next week. - Reuters
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