Zelensky condemns Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian apartment building

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned a Russian missile strike that he said killed two people, including a child, in a Zaporizhzhia apartment building on Sunday.

“Tonight, the Russian army shelled Zaporizhzhia with S-300 missiles. They hit a house, an apartment building. Three people were inside. A man, a woman and a child — a girl, her name was Iryna, she would have turned 11 this year. She died. The man died too,” Zelensky said in an address to Ukrainians, adding that the woman is in critical condition. 

“This is how the terrorist state spends this Palm Sunday. This is how Russia puts itself in even greater isolation from the world, from humanity. Every bright Christian holiday teaches us that we may not know how, but we must be sure that evil will lose,” Zelensky said. 

“May next year’s Palm Sunday pass in peace and freedom for all our people!”

Russian attacks reportedly killed several civilians over the weekend even as Pope Francis used his Easter speech at St. Peter’s Basilica to call for peace between Moscow and Kyiv.

“Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia,″ Francis said on Sunday.

Catholics celebrated Easter on Sunday, while Orthodox churches marked Palm Sunday this weekend. The majority of religious Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christian, according to The Associated Press.

Between Saturday and Sunday mornings, Russian forces reportedly launched 40 air strikes, four missile strikes and 58 attacks from multiple-rocket launchers throughout Ukraine.

In recent days, a number of classified documents discussing Ukraine appeared online in an apparent leak of Pentagon materials. Ukraine over the weekend has suggested Russia is behind the leak and altered the materials to spread misinformation.