Russia missiles hit crowded Ukraine shopping centre
Attack condemned as G7 vows support ‘for as long as it takes’
Russian long-range bombers struck a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk with a missile yesterday, raising fears of what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an “unimaginable” number of victims in “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history”.
Zelenskyy said many of the more than 1000 civilians inside the mall managed to escape. Giant plumes of black smoke, dust and orange flames emanated from the wreckage, with emergency crews rushing in to search broken metal and concrete for victims and put out fires. Onlookers watched in distress at the sight of how an everyday activity such as shopping could turn into a horror.
The casualty figures were difficult to determine as rescuers searched the smouldering rubble.
At Ukraine’s request, the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting in New York today to discuss the attack.
In the first Russian government comment on the missile strike, the country’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, claimed that the incident was a provocation by Ukraine.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said it appeared Russian forces had intentionally targeted the shopping centre and added, “Today’s Russian strike at a shopping mall in Kremenchuk is one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.” He said Russia “has become the largest terrorist organisation in the world”.
Russia has increasingly used longrange bombers in the war. Ukrainian officials said Russian TU-22M3 longrange bombers flying over Russia’s western Kursk region fired the missile that hit the shopping centre, as well as another that hit a sports arena in Kremenchuk.
The United Nations called the strike “deplorable”, stressing that civilian infrastructure “should never ever be targeted”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Group of Seven leaders issued a statement yesterday condemning the attack and saying that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime. Russian President
Putin and those responsible will be held to account”.
The attack coincided with Russia’s all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province, “pouring fire” on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air, according to the local governor. At least eight people were killed and more than 20 wounded in Lysychansk when Russian rockets hit an area where a crowd gathered to obtain water from a tank, Luhansk
Governor Serhiy Haidai said.
The eastern barrage was part of Russian forces’ intensified offensive aimed at wresting the eastern Donbas region from Ukraine. Over the weekend, the Russian military and their local separatist allies forced Ukrainian government troops out of Lysychansk’s neighbouring city, Sievierodonetsk.
In other developments, in Germany’s Bavarian Alps, leaders of the G7 countries unveiled plans to
seek new sanctions and pledged to continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. In a joint statement yesterday after they held a session by video link with Zelenskyy, the leaders underlined their “unwavering commitment to support the government and people of Ukraine in their courageous defence of their country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Elsewhere, Washington was expected to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Ukraine.
In Brussels, Nato Secretarygeneral Jens Stoltenberg announced plans to greatly expand the alliance’s rapid-reaction forces nearly eightfold from 40,000 to 300,000 troops as part of its response to an “era of strategic competition”. Nato will agree to deliver further military support to Ukraine — including secure communication and anti-drone systems — when its leaders convene in Spain for a summit later this week, Stoltenberg said.
Britain’s defence ministry said Russia is likely to rely increasingly on reserve forces in the coming weeks. Analysts have said a call-up of reservists by Russia could vastly alter the balance in the war but could also come with negative political consequences for President Vladimir Putin’s government. —AP