Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih mourns victims of Russian missile strike

By Mykhailo Moskalenko and Sergiy Chalyi

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (Reuters) - A central Ukrainian city held vigils on Monday that began three days of mourning for 11 adults and nine children killed by a Russian missile last week, as one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in months jeopardised Washington's ceasefire push.

Friday evening's strike on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's home city of Kryvyi Rih sprayed shrapnel across a dense residential area, including a playground. Ukraine's military said Moscow used cluster munitions.

The sound of wailing echoed throughout the gilded interior of a cavernous Orthodox church as relatives wept over the coffin of 9-year-old Herman Tripolets, who had been playing on a swing when the missile struck.

"He really loved this life," said his godmother, Inna. "He was just a ray of sunshine."

Down the road, mourners flocked to a double funeral for 15-year-old Danylo Nikitskyi and Alina Kutsenko, who were later buried side by side in matching white coffins.

Local clergymen also held a service at the playground where residents had crafted a makeshift memorial featuring toys and stuffed animals.

Funerals were scheduled throughout the day for other victims killed in the attack, whose ages ranged from 3 to 79 years old. Thirty-three other people, including four children, are still being treated in hospital.

Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the strike was the deadliest of the war on Kryvyi Rih, an industrial centre with a pre-war population of around 600,000 that is regularly targeted by Russian missiles and drones.

"Revenge will be inevitable, because this is a crime without a statute of limitations," Vilkul wrote on social media.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on Monday that Kyiv had initiated an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council for "a robust international response to Russian atrocities."

THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN WAR

Images of bloodied and contorted bodies strewn across a courtyard have fuelled renewed public fury at Russia, which has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russia said without providing evidence that Friday's strike had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian service members and foreign trainers and killed up to 85 of them, a claim rejected by Kyiv as disinformation.

Police bodycam footage, verified by Reuters, showed rescuers tending to terrified residents and crying children in the chaotic aftermath.

"The use of an explosive weapon with wide area effects by the Russian Federation in a densely populated area - and without any apparent military presence - demonstrates a reckless disregard for civilian life," U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement on Sunday.

"Even if the Russian authorities had had information that military personnel could be present, the mode and circumstances of attack may constitute an indiscriminate attack," the U.N. rights office said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to swiftly end the war, while reaching out to restore relations with Moscow after years in which the United States firmly backed Kyiv.

Russia rejected a U.S. proposal last month for a full ceasefire that Kyiv had agreed to. The warring sides then agreed to a limited pause on attacks on energy infrastructure, which both accuse the other of violating.

White House officials are discussing the likelihood that Washington will be unable to secure a peace deal in the next few months.

At the double funeral on Monday, teacher Tetiana Slobodianiuk said she would ask Trump, if given the chance, to spend a couple of days in Kryvyi Rih.

"Maybe then he would understand the kind of difficult circumstances we live in today ... how hard it is to live through moments like these."

(Additional reporting and writing by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv; Editing by Peter Graff and Rod Nickel)