At least 15 killed and over 100 wounded in Russian ‘double-tap’ strike on a Ukrainian shopping center
A site of a shopping centre hit by a Russian drones attack
(CNN) — At least 15 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in a Russian “double-tap” strike on a shopping center in central Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
“The attack drones struck in two waves: half an hour after the first strike and the resulting fire, there was a second strike targeting emergency responders,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Telegram.
He warned that Ukraine “will definitely respond” to the attack.
Footage geolocated by CNN shows a drone hitting a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, causing a fireball to erupt into the sky as it explodes, all while smoke from an apparent earlier strike is still visible.
Smoke filled the inside of the shopping center as people hurriedly tried to leave, videos filmed at the scene show. Stores inside the shopping center caught fire, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city’s defense council, said.
At least 130 people have been wounded, including multiple children, according to the Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor’s office. At least 29 of the injured are in serious condition, Vilkul said, including a 14-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury and four other children.
Emergency crews are still working to clear the rubble. Several people are missing and can’t be reached, Vilkul added.
Russia has intensified its aerial assault on Ukraine in recent months as the front lines remain largely static, locked in a slow-moving, deadly stalemate, and Ukraine’s air defenses come under strain.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha again urged allies to provide more missile interceptors and impose additional sanctions on Russia’s military-industrial complex.
“Russia must be denied both the ability to produce these means of terror and the ability to use them,” he said.
The strike on the mall happened a day after Russia carried out a large attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region, killing at least 17 people, according to Ukraine.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Michael Rios and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.
