Dozens missing after Russian missile strike kills 18
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine — Firefighters on Tuesday searched the rubble of a Ukrainian shopping mall, where authorities said 36 people were missing after a Russian missile strike that killed at least 18, as a regional governor reported another “enemy attack” further east.
Both attacks, in the central city of Kremenchuk and in the Dnipropetrovsk region, were far from any frontlines. The shopping mall attack drew a wave of global condemnation, with France’s Emmanuel Macron calling it a “war crime.”
Ukraine said Moscow had killed civilians deliberately in Kremenchuk. Russia said it had struck a nearby arms depot and falsely claimed that the mall was empty.
The governor of Dnipropetrovsk said rescue workers were searching for people under rubble in the region’s main city, Dnipro.
The official, Valentyn Reznychenko, said Russia fired six missiles, three of which were shot down. Railway infrastructure and an industrial enterprise had been destroyed and a services company was burning.
“Mass enemy attack on Dnipropetrovsk region. Six missiles!!!” he wrote on the Telegram app.
Reuters could not independently verify the governor’s account. The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
At a summit in Germany, leaders of the G7 industrialized democracies announced plans for a price cap on Russian oil, designed to starve Russia of the resources for war without exacerbating a global economic crisis.
Next up will be a NATO summit in Spain, at which the Western military alliance is expected to announce hundreds of thousands of troops shifting to a higher state of alert and an overhaul of its strategic framework to describe Moscow as an adversary.
Relatives of the missing in Kremenchuk were lined up at a hotel across the street from the wreckage of the shopping centre, where rescue workers had set up a base. Adults and children, some in tears, lit candles and laid flowers in a tribute to the dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history.”
Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles had struck a nearby arms depot storing Western weapons, which exploded, causing the blaze that spread to the nearby mall.
Kyiv said there was no military target in the area.
“Russia’s goal is for as many Ukrainians as possible to close their eyes forever, for the rest to stop resisting and submit to slavery,” Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, said on Twitter.