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Zelensky urges pressure on Russia after deadly hotel strike / Photo: © UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE/AFP
Zelensky urges pressure on Russia after deadly hotel strike
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged "no pause" in pressure on Russia to halt its "terror" after a Russian missile strike on a hotel in his hometown killed four civilians.
Rescue workers at the scene used cranes and worked under floodlights to search for survivors under the rubble after the strike on Kryvyi Rig in southern Ukraine, images released by emergency services showed.
"Just before the attack, volunteers from a humanitarian organization –- citizens of Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom -– had checked into the hotel. They survived," Zelensky wrote on social media.
"There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life," the Ukrainian leader added.
Moscow has stepped up its bombardments as divisive rhetoric builds in Washington on potential talks to halt the more than three-year war.
The governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, said the toll from the strike had risen to four after a 43-year-old man succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
Lysak had earlier said that more than 30 people were wounded.
In addition to the hotel, 14 apartment buildings, a post office, almost two dozen cars, a cultural institution, and 12 shops were damaged, authorities said.
The latest attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region, which Russian forces are clawing their way towards, was part of an overnight barrage of Russian drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had attacked with two missiles and more than 100 drones including attack drones and decoys. Air defence units downed 68 of the Russian drones, they added.
The strike is among the first since Washington suspended its intelligence sharing with Ukraine, delivering a fresh blow to Kyiv.
"Every day Russia demonstrates that it is ready to continue the war and terrorize civilians. That is why Ukraine needs strong security guarantees to ensure a lasting and just peace," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal wrote on social media after the attack.
Kryvyi Rig lies some 70 kilometres (43 miles) north west of the front line in southern Ukraine and was home to more than 600,000 people before the war.
Officials also said a security guard was killed when a warehouse was struck in Sumy in the north.
burs-jbr/dt/fg
N. Gonçalves--JDB
