Search for Survivors After 16 Killed by Russian Double-Tap Strike on Ukraine Mall
Rescuers in Ukraine worked through the night to search for survivors in the wreckage of a shopping centre hit by a deadly Russian double-tap drone strike.
Sixteen people were killed and 130 injured in the busy mall in Kryvyi Rih on Friday, local officials said. Nine people are reportedly still missing.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the "cynical and despicable" attack was carried out in two waves, with the second strike targeting emergency workers at the scene.
Meanwhile, local officials reported at least two further deaths early on Saturday following Russian strikes. The defence ministry in Moscow claimed it had targeted transport infrastructure and warehouses.
Twenty-three children are among those injured by Friday’s attack on the shopping centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to regional military head Oleksandr Hanzha. He previously stated that 29 people were in a serious condition, raising fears of an even higher death toll.
Dramatic footage verified by the BBC showed the second drone hitting the already burning mall in Zelensky’s hometown. Russia’s military has not commented.
Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions were urgently deployed to aid in the search for survivors. Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul described the Russian drones as flying at "extremely low altitudes" and called the attackers "animals".
As rescue efforts continued, local authorities in Kyiv reported one death following a fire in a warehouse after an alert for a ballistic missile. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike killed at least one man and injured four people, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration.
Separate Russian attacks on Friday left four dead and several injured in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region and north-eastern Kharkiv region, local officials said.
On Thursday, 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a major Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
Earlier on Friday, Ukraine’s military reported strikes on an oil refinery and a military airfield deep inside Russia. Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian energy facilities and warehouses of the country’s largest online retailer Wildberries in recent months, claiming them as legitimate targets due to their role in financing Russia’s war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently Moscow controls about a fifth of Ukraine.
