Thirty-six still missing after Russian missile strike on mall kills 18
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[June 28, 2022]
By Simon Lewis
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine (Reuters) -Firefighters
and soldiers searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a
Ukrainian shopping mall, where authorities said 36 people were still
missing after a Russian missile strike that had killed at least 18.
Relatives of the missing were lined up on Tuesday at a hotel across the
street from the wreckage of the shopping centre, where rescue workers
had set up a base.
Exhausted-looking firefighters sat on a kerb after a night battling the
blaze and searching for survivors, mostly in vain. Oleksandr, wetting
his face from a water bottle on a bench, said his team had worked all
night picking through the rubble.
"We pulled out five bodies. We didn't find anybody alive," he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of deliberately
targetting civilians in the attack in the city of Kremenchuk in central
Ukraine, far from the frontline. He called it "one of the most defiant
terrorist attacks in European history".
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Russia said the incident was caused by a strike on a legitimate military
target. Its defence ministry said it had fired missiles at an arms depot
for Western weapons, where an explosion of ammunition caused the blaze
at the nearby mall.
Moscow said the mall was disused and empty at the time of the strike, a
claim plainly contradicted by wounded survivors such as Ludmyla
Mykhailets, 43, who had been shopping there with her husband when the
blast threw her into the air.
"I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was
collapsing," she said at a nearby public hospital where she was being
treated.
"It was hell," said her husband, Mykola, 45, blood seeping through a
bandage around his head.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies, at a summit in
Germany, said the attack was "abominable".
"Russian President (Vladimir) Putin and those responsible will be held
to account," they said in a joint statement.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova told Reuters another
missile had also struck a nearby factory, which was closed and not a
military target.
"It's a question about crimes against humanity," she said. "I think it's
like systematical shelling of civilian infrastructure - with what aim?
To scare people, to kill people to make terror in our cities and
villages."
BATTLE FOR LYSYCHANSK
Russia denies intentionally targetting civilians in its "special
military operation" which has destroyed cities, killed thousands of
people and driven millions from their homes.
The attack on Kremenchuk comes after days of increasing Russian missile
strikes far from the frontline, including the first attacks on the
capital Kyiv for weeks.
Moscow has also stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest
city, where Russian troops were pushed back in a counter-offensive in
May. The Kharkiv governor said five people were killed and 22 wounded in
shelling on Monday that hit targets including apartment buildings and a
school.
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![](../images/062822PIX/news_i17.jpg)
Rescuers and service members work at a site of a shopping mall hit
by a Russian missile strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine
continues, in Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine June 27, 2022.
Picture taken June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Anna Voitenko
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The U.N. Security Council, where Moscow wields a
veto, will meet on Tuesday at Ukraine's request following the
Kremenchuk attack. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the
missile strike was deplorable.
On the battlefields of the Donbas region, Ukraine endured another
difficult day following the loss last week of the now-ruined city of
Sievierodonetsk.
Russian forces are trying to storm Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi
Donets River from Sievierodonetsk, which would complete their
capture of Luhansk province, one of two eastern regions Moscow aims
to conquer on behalf of separatist proxies.
Eight residents including a child were killed and 21 wounded by
shelling when they gathered to get drinking water in Lysychansk on
Monday, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
Ukrainian forces still controlled the city but its loss was possible
as Russia poured resources into the fight, he added.
"They really want this and a lot of reserves are being thrown just
for this...We do not need to lose an army for the sake of one city,"
he told Reuters.
Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Moscow of the Luhansk separatists,
said Russian and separatist troops were advancing westward into
Lysychansk and street battles had erupted around the city stadium.
Fighting was going on in several surrounding villages, and the
pro-Russian fighters had entered an oil refinery where Ukrainian
troops were concentrated, Miroshnik said on Telegram.
The advances in Luhansk have given Moscow its biggest victories in
weeks, playing to Russia's strength in overwhelming artillery
firepower that can demolish cities in its path.
But Ukraine still hopes to turn the tide in coming weeks with a
counterattack after Moscow exhausts its invading forces in costly
battles that yield slow gains. Kyiv has begun to receive more
advanced Western weapons, including battlefield rockets that can hit
targets far behind the front.
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The Ukraine war will be the main topic when leaders of NATO
countries hold an annual summit this week in Spain.
Britain's new military chief, General Patrick Sanders, said whatever
the outcome of the war, Russia was likely to emerge as a greater
threat to the West than before.
"While Russia's conventional capability will be much reduced for a
time at least, Putin's declared intent recently to restore the lands
of historic Russia makes any respite temporary and the threat will
become even more acute," he said in a speech.
(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv
and Reuters bureauxWriting by Stephen Coates and Peter Graff,
Editing by Robert Birsel and Angus MacSwan)
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