Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the frontlines on Thursday in an attack which Ukrainian officials called a war crime and said had killed at least 20 people, including three children.
The strike, which Ukraine said had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, came a day after a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian grain exports and underscored how far the two sides remain from a peace settlement.
“What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Russian defence ministry, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, did not immediately comment on the strike.
Zelenskiy told an international conference aimed at prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine that the Russian missiles had killed 20 and wounded many.
“This morning, Russian missiles hit our city of Vinnytsia, an ordinary, peaceful city,” he said.
“Cruise missiles hit two community facilities, houses were destroyed, a medical centre was destroyed, cars and trams were on fire.”
Russia, which launched what it called its “special military operation” against Ukraine on Feb. 24, says its it uses high-precision weapons to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure to protect its own security.
Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, hosts the command headquarters of the Ukrainian Air Force, according to an official Ukrainian military website, a target which Russia used cruise missiles to try to hit in March, the Ukrainian air force said at the time.
Video footage showed thick black smoke billowing out of a tall building, while photographs posted online by the State Emergency Service showed grey smoke rising later from the twisted remains of burnt-out cars and smouldering rubble.
One showed an abandoned, overturned pram lying on the street.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office said residential buildings and administrative and office premises had suffered “significant damage and destruction”.
About 90 people sought medical attention and around 50 of them were in a serious condition following the attack, which also destroyed a medical centre and involved three missiles, the police said.
In a comment on Twitter, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of committing “another war crime”.
“We will put Russian war criminals on trial for every drop of Ukrainian blood and tears,” he wrote.
