‘Little suns in the classroom': Ukrainian city mourns children killed by Russian missile

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine — Anger and outrage gripped the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground.

More than 70 were wounded in the attack last Friday evening on Kryvyi Rih. The children were playing on swings and in a sandbox in a tree-lined park at the time. Bodies were strewn across the grass.

''We are not asking for pity,'' Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, wrote on Telegram as Kryvyi Rih mourned. ''We demand the world's outrage.''

The U.N. Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the deadliest single verified strike harming children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was also one of the deadliest attacks so far this year.

Ukraine has consented to a ceasefire proposed weeks ago by Washington. But Russia is still negotiating with the United States its terms for accepting a truce in the more than three-year war.

U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the continued fighting, and Ukrainian officials want him to compel Putin to stop. Trump vowed during his election campaign last year to bring a swift end to the war.

''We're talking to Russia. We'd like them to stop,'' Trump told reporters Sunday. ''I don't like the bombing.''

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed on Monday that Putin supports a ceasefire proposed by Trump but wants Russian conditions to be met.

''President Putin indeed backs the ceasefire idea, but it's necessary to first answer quite a few questions,'' Peskov said.

‘Two desks are empty forever'

In Kryvyi Rih, 59-year-old teacher Iryna Kholod remembered Arina and Radyslav, both 7 years old and killed in Friday's strike, as being ''like little suns in the classroom.''

Radyslav, she said, was proud to be part of a school campaign collecting pet food for stray animals. ''He held the bag like it was treasure. He wanted to help,'' she told The Associated Press.

After Friday evening, "two desks in my classroom were empty forever,'' Kholod said, adding that she still has unopened birthday gifts for them.

''How do I tell parents to return their textbooks? How do I teach without them?'' she asked.

Only Patriot missiles can prevent such attacks

Russian missile and drone tactics continue to evolve, making it harder to shoot them down, Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force command, said on national television.

Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed drones have undergone significant upgrades, while Moscow is also modernizing its ballistic missiles, he said.

Only the U.S. Patriot missile defense system can help prevent attacks like the one in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy said late Sunday.

He said he had instructed his defense and foreign affairs ministers to "work bilaterally on air defense, especially with the United States, which has sufficient potential to help stop any terror.''

Ukraine will send a team to Washington this week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.

Failure to conclude a mineral deal has hamstrung Ukrainian efforts to secure pledges of continuing U.S. military support.

Britain's Ministry of Defense and the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, say Russia's battlefield progress on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has slowed since November. But on Saturday night, Russia launched its biggest aerial attack on Ukraine in nearly a month.

Both sides are thought to be preparing for a renewed spring-summer military campaign.

Air raid interrupts a student's memorial

In Kryvyi Rih on Monday, Nataliia Slobodeniuk recalled her 15-year-old student Danylo Nikitskyi as ''a spark'' who energized the classroom and helped organize school trips and other occasions.

Danylo died alongside his girlfriend, Alina Kutsenko, also 15. ''They were holding hands,'' said Roman Nikitskyi, Danylo's father.

''If Danylo was going, half the class went too,'' the 55-year-old teacher said. ''That's how loved he was.''

She choked up as she spoke of her feeling of powerlessness after the attack.

''You live through their joy, their sadness,'' she told the AP. ''And now, this pain, it tears you apart. And you realize there's nothing you can do. Nothing to fix it. You just carry the pain forever.''

An air raid alert interrupted a planned memorial ceremony in the city — a reminder of the continuing threat for civilians.

The frustration hit home for Nataliia Freylikh, the teacher of 9-year-old Herman Tripolets, who was also killed in last Friday's attack. A minute of silence was held in the children's school, where teachers, classmates and families gathered. Nearly a hundred people stood grief-stricken together.

''Even mourning him properly is impossible,'' Freylikh said.

From the school, the mourners walked to the church for the funeral liturgy for Tripolets — and bid a final farewell to the children who never made it home.

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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine