At least 15 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured after Russian drones struck a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, in what Ukrainian authorities described as a “double-tap” attack.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drones attacked in two waves, with the second strike coming about 30 minutes after the initial attack and targeting emergency workers responding to the resulting fire.
“The attack drones struck in two waves: half an hour after the first strike and the resulting fire, there was a second strike targeting emergency responders,” Zelensky posted on Telegram.
He warned that Ukraine “will definitely respond” to the attack.
Footage verified and geolocated by CNN showed a drone striking the shopping centre, sending a huge fireball into the air while smoke from an earlier explosion remained visible.
The attack sparked fires inside the shopping complex as shoppers and other occupants rushed to escape. Several stores were reportedly engulfed in flames.
The Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor’s office said at least 130 people were injured, including children.
City defence council chief Oleksandr Vilkul said 29 of those wounded were in serious condition.
Among the seriously injured was a 14-year-old girl who suffered a traumatic brain injury, while four other children were also hurt.
Rescue teams continued searching through the rubble as several people remained missing and could not be reached, according to Vilkul.
The latest attack comes amid an intensifying Russian aerial campaign against Ukraine, even as fighting along much of the front line remains largely deadlocked.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha renewed calls for Western allies to supply additional missile interceptors and impose further sanctions on Russia’s military-industrial sector.
“Russia must be denied both the ability to produce these means of terror and the ability to use them,” he said.
The strike came a day after Russia launched a major assault on Kyiv and surrounding areas that, according to Ukrainian authorities, killed at least 17 people.
