Ukraine initiates UN Security Council meeting over deadly strike

Ukraine has initiated an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council following a Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih that killed 20 people, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Monday.

Twenty people, including nine children, were killed when a Russian ballistic missile hit the south-eastern city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday.

Sybiha said this was the largest number of Ukrainian children killed in a single attack since 2022, the year that Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine starting the war.

"Russia must cease its terror against Ukrainian children and civilians, respond to US full ceasefire proposal, which Ukraine has accepted, and end the war," he wrote on X.

Ukraine had initiated an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a special meeting of the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Sybiha said. The meetings were expected to take place on Tuesday.

"A robust international response to Russian atrocities is critical. Such terror should never be normalized. We call for both strong condemnation and firm action," the minister added.

In another post he said he had spoken with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the Kryvyi Rih attack.

"We discussed strong international responses—appropriate to the murder of nine kids by a cluster warhead. I thank Germany and personally Annalena for all the support," he wrote.

Moscow has confirmed the attack, but spoke of a "high-precision strike," which it said hit Ukrainian commanders and their Western instructors. The Ukrainian General Staff in Kiev have described the Russian claim as a lie.

Images of the scene of the attack published by the Ukrainian side showed no evidence of any military targets.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a large-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.