Russian attack on Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih 'kills three'

A Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed a 12-year-old boy and two elderly women, the regional governor says.

"Again, a terrifying enemy attack on Kryvyi Rih. In the middle of the night, when the city slept," Serhiy Lysak said.

He said three more people were injured, and were taken to hospital with injuries of medium severity.

The two elderly women killed by the attack were 75 and 79 years old. Lysak also said two buildings were destroyed and 20 more damaged.

Kryvyi Rih, a major steel-producing city, is about 65km from the nearest Russian-occupied territory. It is regularly hit by air strikes.

Earier, Ukraine banned the use of the Telegram messaging app on devices used by state officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes Russia can spy on both messages and users.

The National Security and Defence Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, presented the council with evidence of Russian special services' ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.

But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council's centre on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices and not personal phones.

Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But Ukrainian security officials had repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war.

Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.

Durov was arrested upon landing in France in August as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on Telegram.

The Security Council statement said Budanov had provided evidence that Russian special services could access Telegram messages, including deleted ones, as well as users' personal data.

"I have always supported and continue to support freedom of speech but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security," Budanov said in his own statement.

According to the Telemetrio database, about 33,000 Telegram channels are active in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who sits on the security council, as well as military commanders and regional and city officials all regularly publish updates on the war and report important decisions on their Telegram channels.

Ukrainian media have estimated 75 per cent of Ukrainians use the app for communication and surveys suggest 72 per cent view it as a key source of information as of the end of last year.