At least 13 people are killed and 50 others wounded in a Russian missile strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine, senior officials say.
Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine [Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine via
A Russian strike has killed at least eight civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk as they were out collecting water, Luhansk’s region governor says.
Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has killed five people and wounded 22, including five children, regional governor says.
In the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, a Russian missile strike has hit a crowded shopping centre, killing at least 13 people and wounding 50, senior Ukrainian officials say.
NATO will increase the strength of its rapid reaction force nearly eightfold to 300,000 troops, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says.
The US will provide an advanced air missile defence system to Ukraine, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirms on the sidelines of the G7 summit taking place in southern Germany.
Russia’s “brutal” missile strike on a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine constitutes a war crime, G7 leaders have said, vowing that Putin and those responsible would be held to account.
“Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the leaders said in a statement as they “solemnly condemn the abominable attack” in Kremenchuk city.
Ukraine has called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over recent Russian strikes on civilian targets, the presidency of the UN body has said.
The missile strike on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk “is the main focus” of the meeting, set for Tuesday at 19:00 GMT, said a spokesman for the Albanian mission, which currently holds the rotating Security Council presidency.
The “shelling all over Kyiv” on Sunday, which hit a residential complex, will also be discussed at the meeting, the spokesman said.
Turkish defence firm Baykar has said it will donate three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Ukraine, after a crowdfunding campaign there raised enough funds to buy “several” of the Bayraktar TB2 model.
The TB2 has been hugely popular in Ukraine, where it helped destroy Russian artillery systems and armoured vehicles. It even became the subject of a patriotic expletive-strewn hit song in Ukraine that mocked Russian troops, with the chorus “Bayraktar, Bayraktar”.
Baykar said the crowdfunding campaign in Ukraine had reached the milestone in a few days and that business leaders as well ordinary people contributed to the fund.
“Baykar will not accept payment for the TB2s, and will send three UAVs free of charge to the Ukrainian war front,” the company said in a statement.
“We ask that raised funds be remitted instead to the struggling people of Ukraine,” it said.
Russia must answer for the deadly missile strike on a crowded Ukrainian shopping centre, France’s Foreign Ministry has said, condemning the attack.
“Russia must answer for these acts. France supports the fight against impunity in Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry in Greece has slammed Russia’s decision to expel eight Greek diplomats as a “decision without a foundation”.
The remaining Greek diplomats would “continue their mission under particularly difficult conditions,” the ministry said in a statement.
Greece expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the beginning of April. Relations between Athens and Moscow are at their lowest since the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to Greece’s participation in sanctions imposed on Russia due to the war, as well as weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
At least eight civilians have been killed and 21 wounded in a Russian missile attack on Lysychansk, Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, has said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Today, when the civilian people were collecting water from a water tank, the Russians aimed at the crowd,” Haidai said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies targeting civilians.
Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine has killed five people and wounded 22, including five children, the regional governor has said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies targeting civilians.
“All of them are civilians of Kharkiv, who were walking on the streets, on playgrounds,” Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app. “My sincere condolences to their families.”
Dmytro Lunin, governor of the central Poltava region, has said on Telegram that 11 people have now been confirmed killed by the strike, adding that rescue workers will keep searching through the smouldering rubble, with more bodies likely to be found.
Lunin also wrote on Telegram that 21 people had been hospitalised, and 29 others had been given first aid without hospitalisation.
“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 shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Ukraine is seen burning after it was hit by a missile.
Speaking at a joint briefing with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine will respond to any attempted attacks from the territory of a Russian-backed breakaway region outside the control of Moldova’s capital, Chisinau.
After Sandu visited Kyiv and its suburbs, Zelenskyy said that any attempts to strike Ukraine from Transnistria, which broke off from Moldova in 1992 and continues to host Russian troops, would be “a mistake on a global scale”.
“These people from the temporarily occupied territories of Moldova should know that for us it will not be a blow, but a mere slap in the face and we will respond to this slap in the face with a blow,” Zelenskyy said.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has voiced horror at Russia’s deadly strike on a crowded mall and vowed to hold Moscow responsible.
“The world is horrified by Russia’s missile strike today, which hit a crowded Ukrainian shopping mall – the latest in a string of atrocities,” Blinken wrote on Twitter.
“We will continue to support our Ukrainian partners and hold Russia, including those responsible for atrocities, to account.”
UN spokesman says attack on Ukraine shopping mall ‘deplorable’
The United Nations is concerned about the intensifying fighting in Ukraine and the “deplorable” attack on a shopping mall, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said.
“It is deplorable, to say the least. Any sort of civilian infrastructure, which includes obviously shopping malls, and civilians should never ever be targeted,” Dujarric told reporters.
At least 10 killed in Russian missile strike on shopping mall: Governor
At least 10 people were killed in a Russian missile strike on the shopping mall in Kremenchuk, regional governor Dmytro Lunin has said.
Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region, said that 40 others had been wounded.
Three killed, 40 wounded in Kremenchuck attack: Officials
Two Russian missiles that hit the Kremenchuk shopping centre have killed at least three people and wounded 40, senior Ukrainian officials have said.
Credit: Aljazeera
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