Russian drone strike on Ukraine shopping mall kills at least 16

At least 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Friday after Russian drones struck a shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said, with rescue crews continuing to search the rubble.

The mall was hit by several drones during the daytime attack. Regional Governor Oleksandr Hanzha earlier said 130 people had been wounded, including 23 children, with 29 people in serious condition. The death toll later rose to 16 after rescuers recovered another body.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, said the drones struck one after another and accused Russia of deliberately carrying out a second attack as emergency crews were responding to the first. Reuters reported that the second drone hit around half an hour after the initial strike.

“An absolute Russian atrocity. They're just monsters. We will definitely respond,” Zelensky said in a statement posted on X. He urged the international community not to remain silent and said Ukraine needed international support to bring the war to an end.

The strike came amid an intensification of Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine. A Russian attack in the southern Mykolaiv region on Friday killed four people, including three children, while a major Russian missile attack on Kyiv a day earlier killed 17 people.