"This is the kind of pain you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy," says Lysak in a statement on Saturday.
The children were between the ages of three and seventeen, according to President Zelensky. A further 72 people were injured, twelve of them children.
The robot hit a residential area near a playground on Friday, according to Oleksander Vilkul, head of the local military. Vilkul calls the event "nothing less than mass murder of civilians".
Three days of mourning have been declared, from Monday to Wednesday.
"Weak" reaction
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky criticizes the US Embassy in Ukraine for what he calls a "weak" reaction to the attack.
"The response from the US Embassy is surprisingly disappointing – such a strong country, such a strong people – and yet such a weak reaction," he writes on X.
"They are even afraid to say the word 'Russian' when they talk about the robot that killed the children."
On Friday, the US Ambassador Bridget Brink wrote a post about the attack, without mentioning who was behind it.
According to Zelensky, the attack clearly shows that Russia is not interested in a ceasefire.
"Precision attack"
The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the attack was a precision attack with a high-explosive robot aimed at a restaurant in the city, where "commanders and Western instructors met".
Ukraine's army chief responds that Moscow is "trying to hide its cynical crime" and "spread false information" about the target.
During the night against Saturday, Russia has sent 92 drones against Ukraine, where 51 were shot down and about 30 landed without damage, according to the Ukrainian air force. At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry claims to have repelled and destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones during the night.
