#dead #rocket #attack #crowded #Ukrainian #mall
At least 16 people were killed in a Russian missile attack on a crowded shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, the head of the emergency services said early Tuesday, sparking international outrage.
“Today’s Russian attack on the shopping center in Kremenchuk is one of the most brazen acts of terrorism in European history,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening program published on Telegram.
Ambulance chief Sergiy Kruk said the main tasks are “rescue work, debris clearance and fire elimination” after Monday’s strike at the mall.
“So far we know of 16 dead and 59 wounded, 25 of whom were hospitalized. The information will be updated,” Kruk said on Telegram.
“All response groups are working intensively,” he said. “The work will continue around the clock.”
“I would like to emphasize once again: do not neglect the air raid alarm!”
Earlier, Zelenskyy said “over a thousand civilians” were in the mall when the rockets hit the city, which had a population of 220,000 before the war.
“The shopping center is on fire, rescue workers are fighting the fire. The number of victims is unimaginable,” Zelenskyy wrote on Facebook.
A video he shared showed the mall on fire with dozens of rescuers and a fire truck outside.
Emergency services also released images showing firefighters and rescue workers trying to clear debris from the building’s smoldering remains.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the strike was deliberately planned to coincide with the mall’s busiest hours and cause the maximum number of casualties.
– Growing international outrage –
The Ukrainian Air Force said the mall was hit by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles fired from Tu-22 bombers in western Russia’s Kursk region.
“The rocket fire on Kremenchuk hit a very busy area that had nothing to do with the hostilities,” the city’s mayor Vitaly Maletsky wrote on Facebook.
Dmytro Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region, where Kremenchuk is located, condemned the attack as a “war crime” and “crime against humanity” and said it was a “cynical act of terrorism against the civilian population”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Kiev’s allies to supply more heavy weapons and impose new sanctions on Russia.
“Russia is a disgrace to humanity and must face the consequences,” he wrote on Twitter.
Presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak accused Russia of being a “terrorist state”.
Outrage at the attack also grew internationally.
A statement by the G7 heads of state and government at a summit meeting in Germany condemned the missile attack as a “war crime”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter: “The world is appalled by today’s Russian missile attack that hit a crowded Ukrainian mall – the latest in a series of atrocities.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the attack showed the “abyss of cruelty and barbarism” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“Russia’s bombing of a shopping center in Kremenchuk is an abomination,” wrote French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.
“We share the victims’ families’ pain and anger at such an atrocity. The Russian people must see the truth.”
Video footage of the mall on fire, with black smoke pouring out, was posted below the tweet.
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