Key Points
- Hundreds of shoppers were in the Kremenchuk shopping centre that was struck by two Russian missiles.
- Russia has stepped up missile strikes across Ukraine in recent days.
Russian missiles have hit civilian areas in a number of Ukrainian cities in the last 24 hours, including a crowded shopping centre in the central city of Kremenchuk.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre at the time of the attack, which witnesses said caused a huge fire and sent dark smoke billowing into the sky.
A Reuters reporter saw the charred husk of a shopping complex with a caved-in roof. Firefighters and soldiers were pulling out mangled pieces of metal as they searched for survivors.
"It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims ... It's useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia," Mr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Dmytro Lunin, governor of the central Poltava region, wrote on Telegram that 13 people had now been confirmed killed by the strike, adding that it was too soon to talk of a final death toll as rescuers continued to trawl through the rubble.
"It's an act of terrorism against civilians," he said separately, suggesting there was no military target nearby that Russia could have been aiming at.
The one-storey building of a shopping centre in Kremenchuk was hit by rockets. Credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Worried family members, some close to tears and with hands over their mouths, lined up at ahotel across the street from the mall where rescue workers had set up a base.
Kiril Zhebolovsky, 24, was looking for his friend, Ruslan, 22, who worked at an electronics store and hadn’t been heard from since the blast. “We sent him messages, called, but nothing,” he said. He left his name and phone number with the rescue workers in case his friend is found.
Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 before Russia's February invasion of Ukraine, lies on the Dnipro River in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine's biggest oil refinery.
Ukraine's air force command said the shopping centre was hit by two long-range X-22 missiles fired from Tu-22M3 bombers that flew from Shaykovka airfield in Russia's Kaluga region.
Russia accused of deliberately targeting civilians
The final death is still being confirmed after a Russian missile killed at least eight civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Monday as they were out collecting water, said the governor of Luhansk region, Sergiy Gaiday.
It follows deadly strikes earlier in the eastern city of Kharkiv, as Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of deliberately targeting civilians.
Lysychansk resident Valentina fills up water jugs from a fire department water tender vehicle on 19 June 2022. The embattled city has suffered extensive infrastructure damage due to daily bombardment from Russian forces. Source: AAP / Justin Yau
"Eight residents are dead, 21 have been taken to hospital," he said.
Lysychansk is the next target of Russian forces in their bid to take total of Ukraine's eastern Donbas territory, made of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Over the weekend, they captured its twin city, Severodonetsk, after weeks of fierce fighting.
'We need missile defences'
Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, wrote on Twitter, without citing evidence, that the attack on Kremenchuk was a "Ukrainian provocation."
"Exactly what Kiev regime needs to keep focus of attention on Ukraine before (the) NATO Summit," he said, referring to the alliance's Madrid gathering due to begin on Tuesday.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that the upcoming summit will agree a new assistance package for Ukraine in areas "like secure communications, anti-drone systems, and fuel."
"We need more weapons to protect our people, we need missile defences," Andriy Yermak, head of the president's office, wrote on Twitter after the attack.
Vadym Denysenko, an interior ministry adviser, said Russia could have had three motives for the attack.
"The first, undoubtedly, is to sow panic, the second is to... destroy our infrastructure, and the third is to... raise the stakes to get the civilised West to sit down again at the table for talks," he said.
Russia, which has captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after a weeks-long assault, has stepped up missile strikes across Ukraine in recent days.
Missiles hit an apartment block and landed close to a kindergarten in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, killing one person and wounding several more people.
