Photos capture moment mall was destroyed
SCREAMING towards hundreds of innocent civilians, a Russian missile is milliseconds from smashing into a Ukrainian shopping mall.
The attack killed at least 18 people, injured 60 and left 40 missing.
These terrifying images of a KH-22 air-to-surface missile show it exploding in a bright ball of flame which then set off a huge inferno.
The air strike on a mall in Kremenchuk, more than 100 miles from the eastern front line, shows nowhere is safe in Ukraine.
Criticising Monday’s attack, Pope Francis said: “Every day, I carry in my
heart dear and martyred Ukraine, which continues to be flagellated by barbarous attacks like the one that hit the Kremenchuk shopping centre.
“I pray this mad war can soon end.”
The 38ft-long, liquid-fuelled KH-22 rocket is designed to take out aircraft carriers and was launched from a TU-22m long-range bomber plane from inside Russia.
It weighs 12,800lb and observers believe its use in Kremenchuk indicates Russia is struggling to source battle-specific missiles for use against land targets. British troops are teaching Ukrainian troops to use new rocket and artillery systems in sessions on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Captain James Oliphant, 43, of the Royal School of Artillery, said 66 have been taught to use Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and 305 to use L119 guns, adding: “They are extremely competent on the system and they just want to get back.”
Amnesty International has found the strike on the Mariupol theatre in March was a “clear war crime”.
Witnesses helped to “model” the atrocity and the probe found Russia knew hundreds of civilians were sheltering inside and “deliberately targeted” the building.