Russia claims strike targeted military commanders in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih: proven false

This was confirmed on Saturday, April 5, by the investigative project Systema of the Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Eyewitness footage, investigators note, allowed them to identify the area of the strike – "the northeastern part of the city, a residential district near Spivdruzhnosti Street." "There is only one restaurant in this area – RoseMarine, formerly known as Magellan. Initially, local Telegram channels suggested that the Russian missile might have hit it. Even Russian Z-publics wrote that the strike was 'targeted at the Magellan restaurant,'" according to the Systema report. This is where the alleged "meeting" mentioned by the Russian Ministry of Defense's press service was supposed to have taken place.

However, as it turned out, on April 4, the RoseMarine restaurant hosted the Beauty Business Forum Golden Snitch, organized by the Union of Business of Kryvyi Rih. The event had been announced on February 24 in the association's Telegram channel (accessible by link) and on public city channels. The posts were not edited and had been published in advance – retroactively editing them is impossible.

A representative of the association confirmed to Systema that the beauty industry forum indeed took place at RoseMarine on April 4. The event lasted about four hours, and the majority of participants left around 18:30. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense's report, the strike occurred at 18:49 Kyiv time. The "Systema" source mentioned that they left about three or four minutes before the strike, but two girls from the forum participants, one of whom lived nearby, were hit by the shelling. The source added that, simultaneously with the forum, a birthday party was taking place at the restaurant, attended by many young people and children.

• At the same time, the crater from the "precision strike," as described by the Russian Ministry of Defense, was located in the yard next to the nearest five-story residential building to the restaurant. The restaurant itself was located at a significant distance, while a children's playground was nearby, where the majority of the victims – 9 children and 10 adults – were reported to have been killed, according to the information available as of the evening of April 5.