DISINFO: Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih only hurt Ukrainian army and NATO officers
SUMMARY
Kyiv stated that children allegedly died after the strikes in Krivoy Rog, but this is incorrect. Only the version of the Russian Ministry of Defence should be considered.
Russian troops launched a precision missile strike on a meeting place with commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Western instructors at a restaurant in the city of Krivoy Rog. The enemy lost up to 85 servicemen
The Russian military strike exclusively at military and near-military targets in Ukraine; strikes are not carried out on civilian infrastructure.
RESPONSE
Denial of war crimes by the Kremlin as well as disinformation about Russia being at war with NATO. The denial covers not only a specific war crime on April 4, 2025, in the city of Kryvyi Rih, but also during the war more broadly.
On Friday, April 4, 2025, a missile strike on the city of Kryvyi Rih hurt civilians. Seventy-two people were victims, including 11 children. Among them, 46 injured people were in hospitals, including five kids (two in Dnipro) and 23 women. Twenty people were killed, including 9 children.
The Russian Ministry of Defence claims that the strike targeted a gathering of “Ukrainian commanders and Western instructors.” However, the footage obtained by France 24 shows that no military personnel were present at the restaurant.
“The Russians say they were aiming at soldiers, but there were no soldiers here. It’s just horrific. So many children died,” said Oleh, a former soldier who lives next to a nearby playground.
Reporting from the scene, France 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg said he saw no evidence that the restaurant was being used for military meetings.
Valeriia Bielikova, the owner of RoseMarie and an eyewitness to the blast, said the event at the time was a meetup for beauty professionals.
“Just before that, we had manicurists and pedicurists here. We were sitting outside, talking, when we heard the explosion. At first I didn’t feel anything, I just saw Lidiia covered in blood,” said Bielikova, who was in the courtyard with a friend at the time of the strike.
In the footage published by France 24, Valeriia and Lidiia are shown sitting outside the restaurant. The building itself remained standing — contradicting Russian claims that it was the direct target. The blast’s force struck the adjacent children’s playground.
Since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has attacked civilian targets multiple times, including the city theater in Mariupol, residential buildings, schools and energy facilities. On 05 March 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against two Russian top officials considered responsible for “missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure" between October 2022 and March 2023, which are considered as war crimes.
Denying war crimes and atrocities and trying to deflect any responsibility is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation technique. See other examples of similar disinformation messages in our database, such as: West responsible for hiding the truth about Bucha massacre, or Ukraine confirmed the high accuracy of Russian airstrikes, or The attack on children’s hospital in Kyiv was a NATO false flag operation, or Russia did not attack a children's hospital in Kyiv but only military facilities and air bases, or Russia never attacks civilian targets.