Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has announced a half-week mourning period after a deadly Russian missile strike that killed 18, including nine children.

The mourning will last from Monday til Wednesday, between April 7 and April 9, a local official said.

“Children, families, the elderly... Strikes with ballistic [missiles] and ‘Shahed’ [drones] on residential areas and playgrounds... This is nothing more than a mass murder of civilians… We will always remember each of those who died. This is our shared tragedy and pain,” Head of the Kryvyi Rih Military Administration Oleksandr Vilkul said in a Telegram update on Saturday morning.

On Friday, a Russian missile struck a residential area near a children’s playground and wounded more than two dozen others, according to Vilkul at the time.

The attack was followed by another drone strike the same evening, leading to at least 18 dead – nine of them children – and more than 60 injured in total as of Saturday.