Russia executed a brutal attack on a city in central Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people, including a baby being pushed in a stroller by her mom.
The horrific attack demolished a shopping mall and business center in Vinnytsia when cruise missiles launched from a submarine in the Black Sea struck the city, according to Ukrainian officials.
Iryna Dmitrieva was taking her daughter Lisa to speech therapy class in Vinnytsia when the stroller was struck.
A Ukrainian nonprofit for children with Down Syndrome said they had known the family and the pair “just happened to be in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”
“Today, our hearts are bleeding and our eyes are full of tears, because our multi-thousand family has lost one of ‘its own,’ ” the center wrote on Facebook.
“The greatest anger and pain is caused by the fact that this is a small, innocent child. Our child. Our little Lisa”
Iryna survived the attack but was in critical condition, despite early reports that she had died in the attack as well.
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Liza Dmitrieva was killed by a Russian missile strike in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. social media/e2wLisa was among three children killed in the strike, which President Volodymyr Zelensky called “an open act of terrorism.”
“There were eight rockets, two of which hit the center of the city. Twenty people have died, including three children. There is a large, large number of wounded,” Zelensky said during an address to European officials at The Hague.
The leader said the attack was on an “ordinary, peaceful city.” Vinnytsia, which is home to around 370,000 people, is a target for the Kremlin because the command headquarters of Ukraine’s air force is located there.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said at least 91 were wounded, more than half of them were seriously injured. At least 42 people remain missing.
Video from the attack shows plumes of black smoke coming from a building in the city. Images show burned-out cars, destroyed buildings and rescue personnel trying to put out fires and search for survivors.
Rescuers carry the body of a person at the site of a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, July 14, 2022. State Emergency Services of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERSUkraine is calling the attack a war crime.
“This is terrorism. Deliberate murder of civilians to spread fear. Russia is a terrorist state and must be legally recognized as such,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
Russia has not commented on the strike.
It came just a day after breakthrough discussions between the warring countries about grain exports ended on a hopeful note.
A baby stroller lies by a road after a missile strike in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on July 14, 2022 which killed three children. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a building damaged by missiles, in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on July 14, 2022. Ukrainian Emergency Service via APMore coverage on the Ukraine war
The attack killed both mother and daughter, who were with a group of 19 others. Irina Dmitrieva/e2wWith Post wires
