Rescuers dig through wreckage after 16 killed in Russian strike on Ukraine mall
British Broadcasting Corporation
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Rescuers Work Through the Night to Search for Survivors
Sixteen people were killed and 130 injured in a deadly Russian double-tap drone strike on a bustling shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on Friday. Nine individuals remain missing, including two children.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as "cynical and despicable," carried out in two waves, with the second strike targeting emergency responders at the scene.
Ongoing Conflict: Both sides exchanged strikes throughout the night, resulting in at least four deaths in Russia, including two children, and two fatalities reported by Kyiv.
The death toll rose to 16 after another body was recovered from the rubble overnight, according to regional military head Oleksandr Hanzha. Twenty-three children were among the injured, with 14 still in hospital as of Saturday morning.
"Twenty-three [people] are in serious and extremely serious conditions, including three children – two boys aged 10 and 16 and an 11-year-old girl," said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council, noting that all had undergone surgery and were receiving necessary care.
Visual Evidence: Verified footage by the BBC shows a second drone hitting the already burning mall in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown. Russia’s military has not commented on the incident.
Vilkul described the drones as flying at "extremely low altitudes," calling the attackers "animals." Rescue teams from seven other Ukrainian regions were deployed to assist with search and rescue efforts.
As rescue operations continued into Saturday, Zelensky reported ongoing missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, damaging civilian infrastructure. One person was killed and another injured by ballistic missile strikes on railway infrastructure in Kyiv, while a "brutal" drone attack on a minibus in Zaporizhzhia left three people wounded.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have downed 457 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Two children were among the victims of a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia.
