Ukraine said Thursday’s strike on an officers’ club in Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Kyiv, had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.
The recent attack was the latest in a series of Russian strikes using long-range missiles on crowded buildings in cities far from the front, killing dozens of people.
Residents placed teddy bears and flowers at a makeshift memorial near the site of the strike.
Russia’s defense ministry said the building was being used for a meeting between military officials and foreign arms suppliers. The attack resulted in the elimination of the participants.
Ukraine Is Calling Russia a Terrorist
Ukraine said the officers’ club housed commercial offices and a cultural center with a public concert hall, where musicians rehearsed for a pop concert that night. A nearby medical center was also destroyed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia a terrorist state, urged more sanctions against the Kremlin, and said the death toll in Vinnytsia could rise.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said three children, including a 4-year-old girl, were among the dead. Another 71 people were hospitalized, and 29 people were missing.
It posted a photograph on its Telegram channel of a toy kitten, a toy dog, and flowers lying in the grass.
