12 killed, dozens hurt in Russian missile strike in central Ukraine —police

KYIV — Three Russian missiles slammed into the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing 12 people including a young child and wounding dozens, police said.

National police said an office block had been hit, nearby residential buildings were damaged and a medical center was destroyed. Ninety people sought medical attention and about 50 of them were in a serious condition, the police said.

Video footage showed thick black smoke billowing out of a tall building and sirens blaring as emergency workers rushed to the scene.

Photographs posted online by the State Emergency Service showed gray smoke rising later from the twisted remains of burnt-out cars and smoldering rubble. One showed an abandoned, overturned pram lying on the street.

"There are wounded and dead, among them a small child," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?"

The Russian defense ministry did not immediately comment on the reports from Vinnytsia. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, has denied deliberately targeting civilians.

Vinnytsia lies about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and is far from the main frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The missile strike hit the car park of the nine-storey Yuvelirniy office block at around 10.50 a.m. (0750 GMT), the State Emergency Service said.

"Unfortunately, there is probably no chance of finding anyone who survived [under the rubble]," a senior regional emergency service official told Ukrainian television.

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.

Russia denies its forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine. The Kremlin says it is engaged in a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine and root out what it regards as dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression. — Reuters