Russian missiles kill at least 22 in Ukraine

VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles that struck a city in central Ukraine killed at least 22 people and wounded about more than 100 Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine's president alleged the attack deliberately targeted civilians in locations without military value.

Officials said Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea struck civilian buildings in Vinnytsia, which is 268 kilometers (167 miles) southwest of the capital, Kyiv. Vinnytsia region Gov. Serhiy Borzov said Ukrainian air defenses downed two of the total four missiles that were launched.

National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said only six of the dead have been identified so far, while 39 people are still missing. Of the 52 people hospitalized, five remain in critical condition while 34 sustained severe injuries, regional health care department head Olha Zadarozhnia told The Associated Press. Three children were among the injured.

"There was a building of a medical organization. When the first rocket hit it, glass fell from my windows, Vinnytsia resident Svitlana Kubas, 74 said. "And when the second wave came, it was so deafening that my head is still buzzing. It tore out the very outermost door, tore it right through the holes."

Russia hasn't officially confirmed the strike. But Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-controlled Russian television network RT, said on her messaging app channel that military officials told her a building in Vinnytsia was targeted because it housed Ukrainian "Nazis."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of intentionally aiming missiles at civilians. The strike happened as government officials from about 40 countries met in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss coordinating investigations and prosecutions of potential war crimes committed in Ukraine.

"Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?" Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky echoed Zelenskyy, calling the missile attack a "war crime" intended to intimidate Ukrainians while the country's forces continue to hold out in the east.

Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine's largest cities, with a prewar population of 370,000. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since the start of the war on Feb. 24.