Russia says targeted weapons depot next to Ukraine shopping centre where 18 died
- A Russian missile strike in central Ukraine left at least 18 people dead and dozens missing in a shopping mall, authorities said
- Russia said it struck a weapons depot and a subsequent explosion of ammunition triggered a fire in the nearby mall
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At least 16 killed by Russian missile strike ‘terrorism’ targeting busy shopping centre in Ukraine
Firefighters and soldiers searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a Ukrainian shopping mall, where authorities said 36 people were still missing after a Russian missile strike that had killed at least 18.
Relatives of the missing were lined up on Tuesday at a hotel across the street from the wreckage of the shopping centre, where rescuers had set up a base.
Exhausted-looking firefighters sat on a kerb after a night battling the blaze and searching for survivors, mostly in vain. Oleksandr, wetting his face from a water bottle on a bench, said his team had worked all night picking through the rubble.
“We pulled out five bodies. We didn’t find anybody alive,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in the attack in the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, far from the frontline. He called it “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history”.
Russia said the incident was caused by a strike on a legitimate military target. Its defence ministry said it had fired missiles at an arms depot for Western weapons, where an explosion of ammunition caused the blaze at the nearby mall.
