Church leaders in Ukraine have denounced a Russian missile strike that killed 20 civilians, half of them children.

The attack, which struck a residential area and playground in President Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, last Friday, occurred during renewed diplomatic efforts for a US-brokered peace deal.

Three days of national mourning followed.

Metropolitan Epiphany, head of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, criticised the moral claims of Russia’s leadership.

“As Orthodox Churches worldwide honoured the Blessed Virgin with due praise, this ‘Holy Russia’ launched a missile at a residential area and children’s playground,” he said. “Is it through such actions that the Kingdom of God will be created?”

He added that Russia kills Ukrainians daily with drones, bombs, missiles, and other deadly weapons, and warned that those “dressed in church vestments” who justify the violence “will be condemned as accomplices in sin".

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said other towns “burned again” over the weekend.

“While the international community talks about a truce and ceasefire in Ukraine, the aggressor mocks these efforts and continues killing innocent people,” he said. “Those innocently murdered have drunk the cup of suffering and death to the end, but there is hope in this for resurrection and eternal life.”

The strike injured over 70 people and damaged dozens of homes and schools. Ukrainian media reported it as one of the worst attacks on children since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as reported by Church Times.

Roman Catholic Bishop of Lviv, Eduard Kava, said the attack, by “animals who consider themselves people", revealed “the whole truth” about a regime that “holds nothing sacred".