(Kyiv) At least 16 people were killed and more than 59 injured on Monday in a Russian missile strike on a ‘busy’ shopping mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, a ‘brazen act of terrorism’ according to the president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Posted at 10:58 a.m.
Updated at 7:15 p.m.
“Today’s Russian strike on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk is one of the most brazen acts of terrorism in European history. A peaceful town, an ordinary shopping center [avec] inside women, children, ordinary civilians,” Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram.
According to him, a thousand people were inside the building, but “many people managed to get out”.
“Only absolutely insane terrorists could strike such a facility with missiles, and they should have no place on Earth,” Zelensky continued, referring to a “calculated strike.”
PHOTO EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
According to the president, rescue operations are still in progress and “the human losses could be significant”, a fire having broken out on an area of 10,000 square meters after the explosion.
The leaders of the G7 for their part described the strike as a “war crime” and an “abominable” attack.
“Indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians constitute a war crime”, declared the leaders, meeting in the south of Germany, in a declaration which “solemnly condemns the abominable attack” and assures that Vladimir Putin will have to “ accountable “.
Kyiv has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the latest Russian bombings against civilian targets in Ukraine, to be held on Tuesday at 3 p.m., the Albanian presidency of the highest UN body.
“At present, we are aware of 16 dead and 59 injured, 25 of whom are hospitalized. The information is being updated, ”said Sergiy Kruk on Telegram.
Relief is mainly focused on “rescue, debris removal and fire suppression”, according to Mr Kruk, who added that “all response groups are working in intense mode” and that “the work is will continue 24 hours a day.”
“I want to insist once again: do not neglect air alerts! he warned.
This city in central Ukraine had some 220,000 inhabitants before the war and had so far been spared from bombardment.
Mr. Zelensky had previously posted a video showing the mall on fire, emitting large clouds of smoke, with firefighters and rescuers busy at the scene.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY REGIONAL GOVERNOR DMYTRO LOUNIN VIA REUTERS
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the mall was hit by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles fired from Tu-22 long-range bombers from Russia’s Kursk region.
“The missile fire on Kremenchuk hit a very crowded place that has no connection with the hostilities”, reacted on Facebook Vitali Maletsky, the mayor of Kremenchuk.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter called on Kyiv’s supporters to supply him with more heavy weapons and impose additional sanctions on Russia.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, accused the country of being a “terrorist state” on Twitter and the Ministry of Defense spoke of a deliberate strike carried out at a time when the mall was “particularly crowded”, in order to to “cause as many victims as possible”.
The American ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, assured, quoted by her services on Facebook, that “the world will ask[it] accounts in the Kremlin for its atrocities in Ukraine”.
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said the world was “horrified” by the strike.
Describing the missile strike as “the latest in a series of atrocities,” the secretary of state tweeted that the United States would continue to support its Ukrainian partners and hold “Russia to account, including those responsible for atrocities”.
This Russian strike is “totally deplorable”, declared the spokesman of the UN, Stéphane Dujarric, during his daily press briefing.
“We underline once again that the parties are obligated under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure,” he added.
Boris Johnson condemned the strike, which he said shows Vladimir Putin’s “cruelty and barbarism” and only “strengthens the determination” of the West to support Kyiv.
“This appalling attack has shown once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism into which the Russian leader is ready to fall,” the British prime minister said in a statement.
“Putin must understand that his behavior will only strengthen the resolve of the UK and all other G7 countries to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he added.
Eight dead in Lysychansk
At least eight Ukrainian civilians were killed and 21 others injured in a Russian bombardment on Monday while collecting water in Lysytchansk (East), twin city of Sievierodonetsk recently taken by Moscow forces, announced the governor regional.
“The Russians fired into a crowd of people with Ouragan multiple rocket launchers as civilians collected water from a cistern. Eight residents of Lysychansk died, 21 were taken to hospital,” Sergey Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, wrote on Telegram.
This locality is the next target of the Russian forces after their total occupation of Sievierodonetsk, after several weeks of fighting which ravaged the two cities and which also caused the death of dozens of civilians.
It is the last major city left to conquer for the Russians in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces of the Donbass industrial basin.
The Ukrainian army announced on Friday its withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk to better defend Lyssytchansk, where street clashes are taking place according to pro-Russian separatists who fight alongside Moscow forces.
Gaidai had reported last week that the fighting was causing “catastrophic destruction” in Lysychansk, which had a population of around 100,000 before the war.