In Putin’s most recent savage assault against humanity, Russia launched a fatal missile strike on a crowded shopping center in Ukraine, killing dozens of people and leaving many more in critical condition.
Around 1,000 people were inside the packed mall in Kremenchuk this afternoon when missiles began to rain down on the structure in what Ukraine termed as a “crime against humanity.”
Officials initially reported that 20 people had been hurt and at least two had died, but it is anticipated that the death toll may climb.
Nine of the injured are in critical condition, and there is a rescue operation underway.
The facility burst into flames as panicked survivors urgently sought to leave for safety as plumes of black smoke rose into the air.
Andrey Rudenko, a war publicist for Putin, has already rejected the savage attack as a Kyiv “fake” operation. Russia has made the same absurd assertions in the past over the horrors in Bucha.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that the number of casualties was “hard to even begin to comprehend.”
‘It’s useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia.’
Zelensky stressed that the target presented ‘no threat to the Russian army’ and had ‘no strategic value’ accusing Russia of sabotaging ‘people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry’.
In footage taken from inside the shopping centre, a male voice is heard shouting: ‘Is anyone alive? Anyone alive here?’
A man filming from outside then says: ‘This is it, the walls are collapsing.’
Dmytro Lunin, head of Poltava regional administration, said: ‘Missile strike on a shopping mall with people in Kremenchuk is yet another military crime by the Russians. A crime against humanity. This is an obvious, cynical act of terror against peaceful civilians. Russia is a terrorist state.
‘Rescuers and policemen are working at the site. The number of victims is impossible to count as of now.’
Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said: ‘They said they would be hitting centres of decision making.
‘But even the most sick imagination would not have guessed they mean shopping centres by this.
‘More than a 1000 civilians got wounded.’
Although he did not provide numbers, city mayor Vitaliy Meletskiy said that the walkout had resulted in fatalities and injuries.
On the banks of the Dnipro River, in central Ukraine, sits the industrial powerhouse of Kremenchuk.
The city, which had 217,000 residents before to Russian invasion, is home to the largest oil refinery in the nation.
‘These crazies are returning to provocations,’ said TV war correspondent Andrey Rudenko, saying that Russia had manufactured the tragedy.
‘The shopping mall in Kremenchuk, with allegedly thousands of people inside it. Videos show an empty car park with just a couple of cars.
‘Was this a working shopping centre, there would have been lots of cars. Were there people inside the centre, and were they to be wounded or killed, then there would be no way these cars would be cleared away.
‘There are no women by the shopping centre, though at this time of day shopping centres are filled with females. Yet we see mainly young men of similar age, and no panic.
‘They are all dressed in shorts, they don’t wear T-shirts. There is a feeling of a crowd of ‘extras’, similar to football fans or something like it.
‘Conclusion: there is a sense they set it up themselves, or shot it for a strong pictures. But they didn’t do it properly, again.’
It is just the latest strike carried out by Vladimir Putin’s forces against defenceless civilians in Ukraine, with hospitals, schools and homes destroyed throughout his savage invasion.
Elsewhere, Russia is continuing to mount an all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, ‘pouring fire’ on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air, the local governor said today.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were pummelling Lysychansk after capturing the neighbouring city of Sievierodonetsk in recent days.
It’s part of a stepped-up Russian offensive to wrest the broader Donbas region from Ukrainian government control in what Western experts say has become the new main goal of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month.
‘They’re pouring fire on the city both from the air and from the ground. After the takeover of Sevierodonetsk, the enemy army has concentrated all its forces on capturing (our) last stronghold in the Luhansk region: Lysychansk,’ Haidai told The Associated Press.
The Russians were trying to blockade the city from the south, ‘destroying everything that their artillery and multiple rocket launchers can reach,’ Haidai said.
In recent weeks, Russian troops have captured several villages and towns southeast of Lysychansk, and were trying to halt access to the city from the south.
Meanwhile to the west, the mayor of the city of Sloviansk – potentially the next major battleground – said Russian forces fired cluster munitions on the city after dawn, including one that hit a residential neighbourhood.
Authorities say the number of dead and injured are still to be confirmed. The AP saw one fatality: A man’s body lay hunched over a car door frame, his blood pooling onto the ground from scattered chest and head wounds.
Ukraine forces have spent weeks consolidating their defences around Sloviansk out of concern that it could be the next big Russian target if Lysychansk falls.
Last week, Zelensky said Russia wanted to ‘capture and completely destroy’ Sloviansk.
Most of the windows in the nearby apartment buildings and the automobiles parked below were blown out by the blast’s shockwave on Monday, leaving a trail of broken glass on the ground.
“Everything has been ruined now. The sole residents in this wing of the building are still us. Local neighbor Valentina Vitkovska, who was visibly upset as she spoke about the explosion, stated, “There is no electricity.” I’m unable to phone anyone to let them know what has happened to us.
Zelenskyy office said that over the course of the last 24 hours, heavy Russian bombardment of different Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv and key cities in the country’s south and east, resulted in at least six civilian deaths and 31 injuries.
It said Russian forces fired rockets that killed two people and injured five overnight in and near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and continued to target the key southern port of Odesa.
A missile attack destroyed residential buildings and injuring six people, including a child, it said.
In Lysychansk, at least five high-rise buildings in the city and the last road bridge were damaged over the past day, Haidai, the governor, said.
A crucial highway linking the city to government-held territory further south was rendered impassable because of shelling.
Such shelling is also making the evacuation of civilians increasingly difficult, Haidai said. The city had a pre-war population of around 100,000, approximately one-tenth of whom remain.
Analysts say that Lysychansk’s location high on the banks of the Siverskiy Donets river, as well as its large area dotted with hills, give a major advantage to the city’s Ukrainian defenders.
‘It’s a very hard nut to crack. The Russians could spend many months and much effort storming Lysychansk,’ said military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
The Siverskiy Donets river encloses Lysychansk from the north and east, while the Ukrainian army continues to hold territory west of the city, which it uses to supply arms and humanitarian aid.