'No real step toward ending war' — Russian ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills 4, injures 30

A Russian ballistic missile strike on a civilian infrastructure facility in Kryvyi Rih killed at least four people and injured 30 others on June 23, local authorities reported.

Kryvyi Rih, one of the main industrial centers in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, came under a Russian ballistic missile attack at around 11 a.m. local time, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration.

Russian forces used an Iskander-M ballistic missile equipped with cluster munitions, according to Vilkul.

The three victims were identified as two men, aged 25 and 34, and a 54-year-old woman. The victims were killed up to 200 meters apart, reflecting the wide-area effects of the cluster munitions used in the strike, Vilkul said.

Another victim later died in the hospital overnight on June 24, raising the death toll to four, Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.

Seventeen of the 30 injured remained hospitalized as of the morning of June 24, with five in critical condition, Hanzha said.

"Every such day and every Russian strike prove that the pressure on the aggressor over this war is insufficient," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X.

"It is important that the world not remain silent about the fact that Russia has still taken no real step toward ending this war," the president added.

Emergency services were dispatched to the scene, where a fire broke out following the impact. The fire was extinguished at around 1:30 p.m. local time.

Authorities declared June 24 a day of mourning in Kryvyi Rih.

Russian attacks continue to cause civilian casualties across Ukraine on a daily basis. Overnight on June 23, regional authorities reported at least 5 deaths and 49 injuries nationwide.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was among the affected regions, where Russian strikes killed one person and injured 10 others over the previous day.

According to Vilkul, Russian missile and drone attacks on Kryvyi Rih have killed 118 civilians since the start of the full-scale war, including 16 children.

May 2026 was the deadliest month since April 2022, according to a June 12 report by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). The mission verified at least 274 civilian deaths and 1,763 injuries during the month, marking the highest monthly casualty toll recorded in the past four years.