Scores of civilians are feared dead or seriously injured after a Russian rocket strike hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, officials have said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was “unimaginable”, citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack.
Minutes later, Kyryl Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said that at least two were dead and about 20 were hurt, with nine in serious condition. Mr Zelenskyy said the target presented “no threat to the Russian army” and had “no strategic value”.
Harrowing pictures shared on social media show huge flames billowing from the building, as teams launched a massive rescue operation. Zelenskyy accused Russia of sabotaging “people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry”.
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The strike came the day after Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the first time in weeks, with missiles striking at least two residential buildings. Kremenchuk once had a population of 217,000 before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and lies on the Dnipro river in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine's biggest oil refinery.
Meanwhile, Russia is mounting an all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, “pouring fire” on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air, the local governor has said. Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were pounding Lysychansk after capturing the neighbouring city of Sievierodonetsk in recent days.
It is part of a stepped-up Russian offensive to wrest the broader Donbas region from Ukrainian government control in what western experts say has become the new main goal of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month.
“They’re pouring fire on the city both from the air and from the ground. After the takeover of Sievierodonetsk, the enemy army has concentrated all its forces on capturing (our) last stronghold in the Luhansk region: Lysychansk,” Mr Haidai told the Associated Press.
The Russians are trying to blockade the city from the south, “destroying everything that their artillery and multiple rocket launchers can reach”, he added. In recent weeks, Russian troops have captured several villages and towns south east of Lysychansk, and are trying to halt access to the city from the south.
Ukrainian forces have spent weeks consolidating their defences around Sloviansk out of concern it could be the next big Russian target if Lysychansk falls. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow wanted to “capture and completely destroy” Sloviansk.
The shockwave from Monday’s blast blew out most windows in the surrounding apartment blocks and the cars parked below, littering the ground with broken glass. Mr Zelensky’s office said at least six civilians had been killed and 31 injured as part of intense Russian shelling against various Ukrainian cities over the past 24 hours — including Kyiv and major cities in the country’s south and east.
It said Russian forces fired rockets that killed two people and injured five overnight in and near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and continued to target the key southern port of Odesa. A missile attack destroyed residential buildings and injured six people, including a child, it said.
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