Funeral held for family killed in Russian strike on Ukraine

The funeral of five members of the same family who were "wiped off the map" in a Russian airstrike at the end of last month was held in central Ukraine on Monday, as Moscow again pounded the region.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, a direct hit by an Iskander ballistic missile struck the family's house in Kryvyi Rig -- President Volodymyr Zelensky's home city -- on July 30.

At least two adults and four children were killed but the death toll could be higher as all the remains have not yet been formally identified.

On Monday, the coffins of five of the dead were brought to a small church in the town in front of a crowd of several dozen people, an AFP journalist said.

The family were "exceptionally good and sincere", said Oksana Stretovych, a colleague of one of the deceased, Olena Voronova. "They always responded to all kinds of situations and tried to help."

Stretovych herself heard "a powerful explosion" on the night of the tragedy.

She was unable to sleep because she was worried about her husband and their only son, who serves in the Ukrainian army in "difficult" areas, she explained.

"When I got up and looked around me, not seeing any flames, I still started to try to find out what happened...

"That's how I found out about the incident. It's very hard."

Stretovych's son, military officer Taras, also said they were "a wonderful family, a large family, a family of faith, who simply worked for the good of Ukraine".

Russian forces "simply wiped off the map a great family that we mourn deeply", he said, adding that he had "an even bigger desire for vengeance".

The priest also described the family as respectable and hardworking. 

On the evening of the strike, he said, "at my place, too, in the garage, the window was blown out, and the one in the bedroom as well", he said.

After the missile struck, the Voronov home "was gone; all that was left was flattened earth", he added.

More than four years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shelling continues on an almost daily basis and is intensifying on both sides of the frontline, causing a growing number of civilian deaths.

On Monday, a new Russian attack near Kryvyi Rig killed three, including an eight-year-old child, at a service station, according to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, Oleksandr Ganzha.

In July, the UN expressed concern about an "alarming escalatory trend" of increased civilian casualties in Ukraine "driven by the intensifying use of powerful weapons that are particularly deadly when used in densely populated urban areas".

In Russia and annexed Crimea, Ukrainian strikes killed 11 on Monday, Russian officials said. Seven people, including three children, were killed and dozens wounded when a drone crashed on a Russian beach on the Black Sea coast, the local governor said.