May 20, 2025
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile struck an outdoor market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The deadly attack came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv and was expected to announce more than $1 billion in new American funding for Ukraine in the 18-month-old war.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said 17 people were killed, and another 32 were wounded. The Defense Ministry said the market was hit by a ballistic missile.
Firefighters extinguished blazes that burned about 30 pavilions at the market, he added.
Twenty shops, power lines, an administrative building and the floor of an apartment building were damaged, according to the prosecutor general’s office.
The attack was another grim reminder of the war’s civilian toll. “A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong,” Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel.
“Those who know this place are well aware that it is a civilian area," Zelenskyy said later at a news conference with visiting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “There aren’t any military units nearby. The strike was deliberate.”
Overnight, Russia fired cruise missiles at Kyiv in its first aerial attack on the capital since Aug. 30, according to Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s regional military administration. Debris from a downed missile caused a fire and damage but no casualties.
In the Odesa region, one person was killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on the port of Izmail that damaged grain elevators, administrative buildings and agricultural enterprises, authorities said.
