Local authorities believe that more people may be trapped under both buildings. The apartment building that was hit was partially burnt out and in particular danger of collapse, video footage showed.

Two missiles landed close to the centre of the city just after 9:00am (0600 GMT), interior minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.

In the city of Kherson, which was liberated from occupation in October 2022, an employee of a municipal communal enterprise died on Monday morning as a result of Russian artillery fire, according to the local military administration. Two of his colleagues were injured.

In the afternoon, another man was reportedly killed and another injured by Russian fire there. The greater part of Kherson Province remains occupied by Russian troop

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences to the victims via Telegram and condemned the “Russian terror.”

Zelensky, who was born and grew up in Kryvyi Rih, said Russians were “continuing to terrorise peaceful cities and people”.

Vilkul said the second damaged building was part of the Kryvyi Rih Professional College of National University of Economics and Management.

The strikes came after a missile attack last month destroyed a five-storey apartment building in the city and killed 12 people.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian artillery strike on partially occupied Donetsk province killed two people and wounded six in the regional capital, according to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the llegally annexed province.

A bus was also hit as Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Donetsk multiple times Monday, Pushilin said.

Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.

The governor of Dnipropetrovsk province, Serhii Lysak, said the morning attack wounded 31 people, including four children. It was not possible to reconcile different casualty figures.

Kryvyi Rih is in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region and has seldom been targeted by the Kremlin’s forces since the war began in February 2022.

But bombardment with missiles, artillery and drones has been a hallmark of Moscow’s tactics since the full-scale invasion, with some aerial attacks hitting civilian areas. Russian officials insist they only take aim at legitimate military targets.

That approach has continued during Kyiv’s recently launched counteroffensive that is trying to drive Russian forces out of occupied areas.

Commenting on the attack, Ukraine’s president said that “in recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centres, shelling civilian objects and housing.”

“But this terror will not frighten us or break us,” Zelensky said in a social media statement.

In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed another civilian Monday, local authorities said. Several others were reported to be wounded.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has sought to take the war deep into Russia, reportedly using drones to hit targets as far away as Moscow. The latest strike, on Sunday, damaged two office buildings a few miles (kilometres) from the Kremlin.

Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of national security and political advisers “soon” to discuss support for Ukraine’s peace demands, following a meeting of Kyiv’s key backers and developing nations in Denmark in June, Yermak said. The goal is to reach a global summit of heads of state, which could take place by the end of the year, he added.

Reporting by Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, dpa