Russian missiles rain down on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk | War in Ukraine

Currently, Mr. Kruk said, relief is mainly focused on rescue, debris removal and fire suppression. He added that all intervention groups work in intense mode and work will continue 24 hours a day.

The governor of the Poltava region, Dmytro Lunine, denounced a war crime and one crime against humanityand a undisguised and cynical act of terror against the civilian population. There were no military targets that could be targeted by the Russian military near the mall, he added.

The occupiers fired missiles at a shopping center where more than 1,000 civilians were present. The mall is on fire and rescuers are fighting the blaze. The number of victims is impossible to imagineUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously commented on Telegram.

” It is useless to expect any morality or humanity from Russia. »

Only absolutely insane terrorists could hit such a facility with missiles, and they should have no place on Earthcontinued Mr. Zelensky, referring to a calculated strike.

His message was accompanied by a video showing a building completely in flames in front of which firefighters are. A huge plume of smoke escapes from the building, under the gaze of a few civilians who watch the scene, helpless.

A Reuters photographer who visited said he saw a mall with a charred structure, with the roof collapsed. Firefighters and the military were scrambling to remove bent metal parts in hopes of extracting survivors.

Kremenchuk, located just over 150 kilometers northwest of Dnipro, is very far from the front lines in the east and south of the country. However, it is home to one of Ukraine’s largest oil refineries.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Amstor shopping center was hit by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles fired from Tu-22 long-range bombers from the Kursk region of Russia.

Missile fire at Kremenchuk hit a busy place unrelated to hostilitieslamented on Facebook Vitali Maletsky, the mayor of Kremenchuk, which had around 220,000 inhabitants before the start of the war, on February 24.

UN Security Council meeting

According to Vadim Denissenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, Moscow could have had three objectives with this bombardment. The first, no doubt, is to sow panic, the second is to […] destroy our infrastructure and the third is […] to increase the pressure to coerce the civilized West back to the tablehe said.

In a message posted on Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on kyiv supporters to provide him with more heavy weapons and impose additional sanctions on Russia.

Faced with this situation, Ukraine has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which will be held on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EDT, the Albanian presidency of the highest UN body has learned. .

The firing of a missile at a shopping center will be the main topic of this session, said a spokesman for the Albanian diplomatic mission.

The missile fire on kyiv Sunday, having touched a residential complex near the center of the Ukrainian capital, will also be discussed at the meeting, the same source said. These shots left one dead and several injured, according to the authorities.

A doomed attack

US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said on Twitter that the world was horrified by the strike on the mall, which he described as the latest in a series of atrocities. Washington will continue to support its Ukrainian partners and will to hold Russia to account, including those responsible for atrocitieshe added.

The American ambassador in Ukraine, Bridget Brink, assured, quoted by her services on Facebook, that the world will ask[it] accounts in the Kremlin for its atrocities in Ukraine.

France accused Russia of appalling violations of humanitarian law in Ukraine after the strike and claimed that Moscow should to answer for these acts.

France condemns Russian missile fire that hit a supermarket in Kremenchukaccording to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. France supports the fight against impunity in Ukrainecontinues the Quai d’Orsay.

” This appalling attack showed once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism into which the Russian leader is ready to fall. Putin must understand that his behavior will only strengthen the resolve of the UK and all other G7 countries to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. »

The strike came on the second day of a G7 great powers summit in the Bavarian Alps, southern Germany, largely devoted to the war in Ukraine.

The leaders of the G7 called war crime the Russian strike. Indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians constitute a war crimethey said in a statement that solemnly condemns the heinous attack.

Kharkiv and Lyssytchansk also targeted

Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian bombardment on Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, left 4 dead and 19 injured, including 4 children, according to what the governor of the region of the same name, Oleh Synehoubov, said on Telegram.

Doctors provide all necessary help. Information on the number of victims is being updated., he said on Telegram. According to him, Moscow deliberately terrorizes the civilian population.

Russian shelling also continued on Monday around Lysytchansk, the last major city not to be entirely under Russian control in the province of Luhansk, in the east of the country.

Its twin city, Sievierodonetsk, located on the east bank of the Donets River, fell to Russian troops last week after weeks of fierce fighting.

Lysytchansk and neighboring villages are living their most difficult days. The Russians destroy everything in their pathsaid Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the Luhansk region.

Russia denies targeting civilians as part of its special military operation in Ukraine. Its Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polianski claimed on Twitter, without providing evidence, that this bombardment was a Ukrainian provocation.

Exactly what the kyiv regime needs to keep the focus on Ukraine ahead [le] NATO summithe wrote, in reference to the summit of the Atlantic Alliance which is due to open on Tuesday in Madrid.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that the summit should lead to further assistance to Ukraine in areas such as secure communications, anti-drone systems and fuel.