Ukraine’s Prosecutor General has named four Russian military commanders believed to have planned, coordinated and ordered the missile attack on civilians in Kryvy Rih. The four have been informed of the charges and officially summoned for questioning, however any trial will be in absentia, with the current regime in Russia rewarding, rather than punishing, those guilty of appalling war crimes. The Russian missile strike was launched just before 19.00 on Friday evening, hit a playground, as well as part of a restaurant complex, killing nine children and eleven adults. The strike also left over 70 people maimed or injured, including seven children. There was also significant damage to 56 apartment blocks, two pre-school establishments, as well as three schools and a restaurant.
Although Russia regularly bombs residential buildings, hospitals, schools, etc. in Ukrainian cities, the number of children killed in this attack prompted the standard attempts to justify such a bloody attack. Moscow claimed that this had been a ‘precision strike’ against a Ukrainian military meeting, allegedly taking place in the restaurant. The claim was almost immediately refuted by, among others, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. An industry forum hosted by the local business association for representatives of the beauty sector had just finished when the missile struck, with the event having been publicized online well in advance. Soon afterwards, France 24 posted CCTV footage from three angles within the restaurant, with this too confirming that Moscow was lying. All witnesses told the UN representatives that there had been no military presence at all in the restaurant, let alone in the children’s playground.
There could not, in any case, have been any excuse for directing an Iskander-M missile, with a fragmentation-explosive warhead that sends a spray of shrapnel over a wide area, at a densely populated district of the city. Türk pointed out that, even had the Russians believed Ukrainian military to be present at the restaurant, “the mode and circumstances of attack may constitute an indiscriminate attack”. While the UN Human Rights chief was careful with his words, it is hard to see how the attack could not have been directed against civilians, with this constituting a war crime. Not only was the missile directed at a densely populated residential area, but its flight time was too short for people to have had any chance of taking shelter.
The four high-ranking Russian military men all hold positions with the Russian armed forces’ joint group of forces:
Aleksei Rostislavovich Kim (b. 21.09.1958), a Russian colonel-general, chief of staff and deputy commander within this joint group;
Aleksandr Igorovich Peshkov (b. 13.10.1972), vice-admiral, deputy commander of the joint forces’ group for armed strikes and head of the centre for planning and coordinating such strikes;
Aleksei Anatolievich Petrushin (b. 21.09.1964) rear admiral, head of the department on military intelligence and on coordinating military strikes;
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kisiedobrev (b. 14.06.1978) colonel and head of the department on missile forces and artillery.
The Russians are all charged under Article 438 § 2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, with war crimes resulting in deaths and committed by a group of people acting by prior conspiracy.
These are the second war crimes charges brought against Aleksei Kim over the past 12 months. In December 2024, the Prosecutor announced that Ukraine’s Security Service had sent information regarding charges over the Russian military strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk (Donetsk oblast) on 24 August 2024. This killed a Reuters media worker Ryan Evans and injured four other journalists, and two local residents. There was no possible military target anywhere in the vicinity, and both Ukrainian and international journalist organizations condemned Russia for targeting media workers.
Most of the children whom Russia killed on 4 April 2025 were in the playground when the missile struck. The youngest, Tymofii, was just 3 years old. Arina Samodina and Radyslav Yatsko were seven; Hernan Tripolets was nine; Alina Kutsenko; Danylo Nikitsky and Mykyta Petekhrest were 15; Kostiantyn Novik was 16 and Nikita Solonichenko was 17.
