At least 16 people have been killed after Russian drones struck a shopping centre in two waves in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, local officials said.
The attack on the city’s biggest mall injured 130 people, including 23 children, while several others remain trapped under the rubble, reports BBC.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the daytime attack in his home town as “absolutely cynical and despicable”, saying Russian forces carried it out in “two waves”.
He said the second strike targeted emergency workers who had arrived at the scene.
Dramatic footage verified by the BBC showed a second drone hitting the shopping centre as it was already on fire in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia’s military has not commented on the attack.
Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha initially reported 15 confirmed deaths on Friday evening, including two people who later died in hospital. He later said emergency workers recovered another body from the rubble, taking the death toll to 16.
Hanzha said nine people, including two children, were still missing from the shopping centre.
Earlier, he reported that 130 people had been injured, with 29 in serious condition, raising fears that the death toll could climb further.
Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions were being urgently sent to Kryvyi Rih to assist in the search for survivors.
Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said earlier that the Russian drones had flown at “extremely low altitudes”, describing the attackers as “animals”.
“There are missing people who are not responding to calls,” the mayor added.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, four people, including three children, were killed in separate Russian attacks in the southern Mykolaiv region, while two others died in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, local officials said.In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, three people were injured when a drone exploded near a taxi, according to the regional head.
The latest attacks came a day after 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a major Russian missile and drone assault on Kyiv.
Local officials said blocks of flats and warehouses were hit overnight across the capital, while a children’s hospital and a school were also damaged.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said earlier on Friday that it had struck an oil refinery and a military airfield deep inside Russia.
Kyiv has intensified attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities and warehouses belonging to Wildberries, the country’s largest online retailer.
Ukraine says such sites are legitimate targets because they help finance Russia’s war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow currently controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the south-east.
