A Russian missile attack hit a busy shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding around 40, the regional governor said.
The attack caused a large fire and dark smoke, according to images released by the president Volodymyr Zelensky.
A Reuters reporter saw the charred remains of the mall with its roof collapsed. Firefighters and soldiers pulled out pieces of shattered metal as they searched for survivors.
We don’t know how many people may be under the rubble,” the head of the regional rescue service said on television.
Zelensky said that more than 1,000 people were in the mall at the time of the attack. He did not give details on deaths, but said: “It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.”
“It is useless to expect decency and humanity from Russia,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
A rescue operation was underway and nine of the injured were in serious condition, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office.
“Rescue workers from all the surrounding areas are heading to the scene to put out the fire and work to liquidate the consequences,” he said.
Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, it is on the banks of the Dnipro River, in the Poltava region, and is home to the largest oil refinery in Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.
“We need more weapons to protect our people, we need missile defenses,” said Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff.
Russia, which captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk over the weekend after a weeks-long assault, has stepped up missile attacks on targets across Ukraine in recent days.
