Horrific footage showed the moment children screamed in fear and ran when a missile hit a hotel.
Two of Moscow’s Iskander missiles hit the Reikartz Hotel in Zaporizhzhia city center on Thursday evening.
One died and 16 were left injured, including four children, from the attack on the hotel on the bank of the Dnipro River.
Ukrainian President said when confirming the incident: “Zaporizhzhia. The city suffers daily from Russian shelling.
“A fire broke out in a civilian building after the occupiers hit it with a missile.”
Putin’s Russia in one video. Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. A Russian cruise missile hits a park where families with children are walking. This is the reality of Ukrainian children today. But this reality is shaped not only by Russia. It is shaped by everyone who still wants to play…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M)
The nightmarish clip shows children gathered near the smoking hotel duck as a missile flies overhead.
After it hits the hotel they can be heard screaming and crying.
The Reikartz was being used as a children’s summer camp which had ended just an hour before the strike, defence ministry said.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed however that its forces had hit a location where “foreign mercenaries” were housed.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said bluntly that footage of the strike summed up “Putin’s Russia in one video”.
He added: “This is the reality of Ukrainian children today. But this reality is shaped not only by Russia. It is shaped by everyone who still wants to play games with Moscow or refuses to provide opportunities to the Ukrainian army for reasons of realpolitik.
“Show this video to anyone who still believes that it is possible to have a civilized dialogue with Russia and ask them if they are really committed to the values they declare.”
Zaporizhzhia was also hit by a Russian missile attack on Wednesday, which killed two young women and a man, and wounded nine others.
It comes after within the country’s military recruitment offices, as .
Mykola Volkivskyi, former advisor to the Ukrainian Parliament, said some regional army chiefs bought luxury cars and properties in Spain while their countrymen died on the frontlines.
He said: “The most outrageous thing was that certain military commissars began to enrich themselves and buy new real estate abroad – particularly in Spain – and expensive luxury cars from the beginning of the war. It outraged Ukrainian society.”
Stay up to date with all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.
Follow our social media accounts here on and @ExpressUSNews
