Russia on Monday launched a series of rockets at a shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, and raised fears that Russia would intensify its attacks on civilian structures regardless of the loss of life.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that there were more than a thousand civilians inside the mall and that the coming victims could cause even more commotion and horror to Ukrainians who are already facing so much death and destruction, as Russia has been waging war on Ukraine for 124 days. .
“It is impossible to imagine the number of victims,” Zelensky told Telegram. “The mall is on fire, lifeguards are fighting the fire.”
Authorities have so far reported 10 people killed in the attack, according to Poltava Oblast President Dmitry Lunin. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said that they have documented 20 injured.
Videos of the scene shared by a member of the Ukrainian parliament show smoke coming out of the mall and fires spreading into the sky.
The walls of the structure began to fall shortly after the missile struck the building, according to a witness who shared images of the scene.
Rescuers trying to reach the civilians faced a wall of smoke, according to images from the rescue mission shared by NEXTA TV.
It is just the latest example of Russian forces targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure that have no strategic importance in fighting in a war with Ukraine. In the early days of the war, Putin attacked a maternity hospital. Earlier Monday, Mariupol Mayor’s Adviser Petro Andriushchenko said more than 100 bodies of dead civilians lay near the ruins of a destroyed residential building in Mariupol. In recent days, Russian bombings have also affected residential buildings in the Odessa region, according to the southern operational command.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said Monday that since the outbreak of war, Russian troops have committed more than 19,700 crimes against Ukraine and its citizens.
Moscow has previously stated that it has not targeted civilians in war.
The Interior Ministry said the incident is a reminder that Ukraine needs more weapons to help deal with the threat of war with Russia. “We need weapons to protect ourselves and protect modern air defense systems,” Gerashchenko said.
As some are concerned that U.S. attention to the war in Ukraine is fading, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, said it is a compelling reminder that the United States and the United States his allies may continue to try to punish the Russian government while Putin’s forces continue. for committing war crimes in Ukraine. “Another war crime for [R]American assassins in Ukraine in this cruel war. We all have to #StopRussiaNow, ”Markarova said.
The attack comes just a day after Russian forces launched missile attacks on both Kyiv and Kharkiv. Russia carried out about 60 attacks over the weekend, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters in a call on Monday. Climbing in the central cities of Ukraine is raising concerns that the Russian war has not shifted permanently to the east and that, in turn, Putin will be able to escalate attacks across the country.
Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview that the current U.S. assessment is that Putin still has plans to try to take all of Ukraine.