The Russian Defense Ministry claimed responsibility for the missile that struck a mall in Kremenchuk, a central Ukrainian city.
Kyiv said 20 people died. As you can see, Kremenchuk is not near Donbas.
Ukrainian officials said at least 20 people died in Monday’s air strike on Kremenchuk, 25 were being treated in hospital and 40 were missing. Rescue workers are still searching the site and authorities expect the death toll to rise.The attack, which is likely to lead to one of the worst civilian death tolls in a single strike since Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in February, was the latest in a series of missile strikes in a conflict that shows no sign of abating.Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, said the war was going “according to plan” and that it would only end once Ukraine capitulated to Moscow’s demands.“The Ukrainian side can end everything by the end of today. They just need to order Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons and fulfil Russia’s conditions. And it’ll all be over,” Peskov told reporters.Putin’s conditions for ending the war have been vague throughout the conflict. Peace talks collapsed in the spring as Russia hardened its stance on seizing more territory.Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre when the strike hit, describing the death toll as “impossible to imagine”.
Strongly worded letters and statements. Look, unless you actually plan to do something, don’t give Ukrainians hope you will do something.
The statement said: “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, providing the needed financial, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic support in its courageous defence of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”We are ready to reach arrangements together with interested countries and institutions and Ukraine on sustained security commitments to help Ukraine defend itself and to secure its free and democratic future.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz:
“The G7 stands united in its support for Ukraine,” Scholz told a press conference after a summit of G7 leaders.”We will continue to keep up and drive up the economic and political costs of this war for President (Vladimir) Putin and his regime.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Russia’s strike this week on a Ukrainian shopping mall was a “war crime” and that France would keep supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary.”Russia cannot and must not win this war,” Macron said at the G7 summit in Germany.
Russia also claims it hit a weapons depot:
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s deadly bombing on a shopping centre in the Ukrainian town of Kremenchuk but insisted it did not know what the mall was open, reports Nataliya Vasilyeva.Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian military, said on Tuesday morning that Russia on Monday used “high-precision weapons” to target hangers at a local factory storing fresh ammunition and weapons supplies from the US and Europe.Mr Konashenkov said the Russia airstrike destroyed the weaponry that was bound to be sent to the eastern Ukraine, the epicentre of the war’s heaviest fighting.He admitted that the shopping centre went on fire because of the Russian attack but insisted that Moscow thought it was shut down.”Ammunition for Western weaponry stored at the warehouse denoted, causing a fire at a shopping centre nearby that has not been operational,” he said.
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