A Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday (June 27), killing at least two people and wounding 20, senior Ukrainian officials said.
The attack caused a huge fire and sent dark smoke billowing into the sky, footage circulated by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine showed.
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.
A rescue operation was under way and nine of the wounded were in a serious condition, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office.
Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, lies on the Dnipro river in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine’s biggest oil refinery.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.
(Reuters)
