At least 13 people were killed in a Russian missile attack on a shopping mall, Ukraine says According to Reuters

By Simon Lewis

KREMENCHUK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Two Russian missiles crashed into a crowded shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 50, the regional governor said. area said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than 1,000 people were in the shopping center at the time of the attack, which witnesses said set off a huge fire and billowed black smoke into the sky.

A Reuters reporter saw the charred shell of a shopping complex with a built-in roof. Firefighters and soldiers were pulling scraps of metal as they searched for survivors.

“Can’t even imagine the number of victims… It is useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Dmytro Lunin, governor of the central Poltava region, wrote on Telegram that 13 people have now been confirmed dead as a result of the strike, adding that it is too early to talk about the final death toll as rescuers Continue to check the wreckage.

Lunin also wrote on Telegram that 21 people were hospitalized and 29 others received first aid without being hospitalized.

It was an act of terrorism against civilians, showing that there were no military targets nearby that Russia could target.

At one point, rescuers rushed into the building after rescuers called “200” meaning they had found one or more bodies in the building. Reporters were then pushed from the scene when the air raid sirens sounded again.

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As night fell, rescuers brought lights and generators to continue the search. Worried family members, some on the verge of tears and gagging, lined up at a hotel across the street from the shopping center where the rescuers had been based.

Kiril Zhebolovsky, 24, was looking for his friend Ruslan, 22, who worked at an electronics store and had not been heard from since the explosion. “We sent him texts, called, but nothing,” he said. He left his name and phone number with the rescuers in case his friend was found.

A shopping mall employee named Roman, 28, told Reuters that the mall management had only allowed stores to open three days before the air raid sirens.

Kremenchuk, an industrial city with a population of 217,000 before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, is located on the Dnipro River in the Poltava region and is home to Ukraine’s largest oil refinery.

The Ukrainian Air Force Command said the mall was hit by two long-range X-22 missiles launched by Tu-22M3 bombers flying from Shaykovka airfield in Russia’s Kaluga region.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, wrote on Twitter (NYSE:), without providing evidence, that the attack was a “Ukrainian provocation.”

“It is precisely the Kiev regime that needs to focus its attention on Ukraine before the NATO summit,” he said, referring to the alliance’s Madrid meeting that will begin on Tuesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday said the upcoming summit would agree on a new package of support for Ukraine in areas “such as secure communications, anti-drone systems and natural gas.” Whether.”

“We need more weapons to protect our people, we need missile defense,” Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, wrote on Twitter after the attack.

Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry, said Russia may have three motives for the attack.

he said.

Russia, which captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk after a week-long offensive, has stepped up missile attacks across Ukraine in recent days.

The rocket hit an apartment complex and landed near a kindergarten in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, killing one person and injuring several others.