Scores of civilians were feared killed or wounded in a Russian missile strike Monday on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk, Ukrainian officials said.
At least 13 people were dead and more than 40 wounded by two long-range X-22 missiles fired from Tu-22M3 bombers that flew from Shaykovka airfield in Russia’s Kaluga region, said Ukraine’s air force command.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was ‘unimaginable,’ citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack.
‘The Russian strike today on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk is one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history,’ he said in his evening broadcast posted on Telegram.
Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke from a shopping center engulfed in flames, as emergency crews rushed in and onlookers watched in distress.
Zelensky said the target presented ‘no threat to the Russian army’ and had ‘no strategic value.’ He accused of Russia of sabotaging ‘people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry.’
Boris Johnson condemned Vladimir Putin’s ‘cruelty and barbarism’, speaking on the day Zelensky addressed the G7 summit to urge G7 leaders to supply missile defence systems, and said it would strengthen the resolve of allies to resist Putin.
Mr Johnson said: ‘This appalling attack has shown once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism to which the Russian leader will sink.
‘Once again our thoughts are with the families of innocent victims in Ukraine.
‘Putin must realise that his behaviour will do nothing but strengthen the resolve of the Ukraine and every other G7 country to stand by the Ukraine for as long as it takes.’
Earlier, the Prime Minister said the ‘price of freedom is worth paying’ and the UK must be prepared to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia for as long as it takes despite the cost.
The conflict in Ukraine has added to the rising cost of living by exacerbating turbulence in international energy prices and causing food shortages due to supplies of grain being prevented from leaving the country’s ports by Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
But speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, Mr Johnson said those pressures will start to ease and the long-term economic impact of defending the rules-based system of international conduct will be beneficial to the global economy.
In footage taken from inside the shopping centre, a male voice is heard shouting: ‘Is anyone alive? Anyone alive here?’
If Putin is not resisted, it could give the green light to countries such as China to pursue their own goals of territorial expansion, he suggested.
The UK has so far contributed around £1.5 billion of economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine plus some £1.3 billion of military assistance.
The Prime Minister told the BBC at the summit in the Bavarian Alps: ‘I think that the economic impacts on the UK will start to abate, we’ll find ways around things and some of the cost pressures will start to come down.
‘But just in terms of staying the course, imagine if you didn’t.
‘Imagine if we allowed Putin to get away with the violent acquisition of huge chunks of another country, a sovereign, independent territory, the lessons for that would be absolutely chilling in all of the countries of the former Soviet Union, you can see what’s happening in the Baltic countries already.
‘But the read across would also be felt in east Asia, as well.
‘So, in terms of the economic effects of that, that would mean long-term instability, it would mean anxiety across the world.’
Comparing the situation to the defeat of Nazi Germany, Mr Johnson declined to put a limit on UK support.
‘The point I would make to people is, I think that sometimes the price of freedom is worth paying.
‘And just remember, it took the democracies, in the middle of the last century, a long time to recognise that they had to resist tyranny and aggression. It took them a long time, it was very expensive.
‘But what it bought in the end, with the defeat of the dictators, particularly of Nazi Germany, it bought decades and decades of stability, a world order that relied on a rules-based international system.
‘And that is worth protecting, that is worth defending, that delivers long-term prosperity.’
A rescue operation is under way and nine of the wounded are in a serious condition, said Ukrainian authorities.
Panicked survivors desperately tried to flee for safety as the complex erupted in fire, with plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
Putin’s war propagandist Andrey Rudenko has already predictably dismissed the brutal assault as a ‘fake’ operation carried out by Kyiv. Russia previously made the same outlandish claims about the atrocities in Bucha.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram: ‘It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.
‘It’s useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia.’
Zelensky stressed that the target presented ‘no threat to the Russian army’ and had ‘no strategic value’ accusing Russia of sabotaging ‘people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry’.
A man filming from outside then says: ‘This is it, the walls are collapsing.’
Dmytro Lunin, head of Poltava regional administration, said: ‘Missile strike on a shopping mall with people in Kremenchuk is yet another military crime by the Russians. A crime against humanity. This is an obvious, cynical act of terror against peaceful civilians. Russia is a terrorist state.
‘Rescuers and policemen are working at the site. The number of victims is impossible to count as of now.’
He said the death toll had risen from 10 to at least 13.
Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said: ‘They said they would be hitting centres of decision making.
‘But even the most sick imagination would not have guessed they mean shopping centres by this.
‘More than a 1000 civilians got wounded.’
City mayor Vitaliy Meletskiy said the strike had caused deaths and injuries, but gave no figures.
Kremenchuk is an industrial hub in central Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnipro River.
The city, which had a population of 217,000 before Russia’s invasion, is the site of the country’s biggest oil refinery.
Russia has claimed that the carnage was a staged ‘fake’ operation, with TV war reporter Andrey Rudenko claiming: ‘These freaks are back to provocations.
‘The shopping mall in Kremenchuk, with allegedly thousands of people inside it. Videos show an empty car park with just a couple of cars.
‘Was this a working shopping centre, there would have been lots of cars. Were there people inside the centre, and were they to be wounded or killed, then there would be no way these cars would be cleared away.
‘There are no women by the shopping centre, though at this time of day shopping centres are filled with females. Yet we see mainly young men of similar age, and no panic.
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