Back-to-back Russian drone strikes kill 14 people in Ukraine shopping centre

At least 14 people ​were killed and more than 120 wounded on Friday when two Russian drones struck a shopping centre in the ​central Ukrainian ‌city of Kryvyi Rih, authorities said.

Twenty-two ⁠children were among the wounded in the daytime attack on President ‌Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said ⁠on the Telegram messaging app.

“There are 29 people in serious condition, including five children,” he ​said.

He posted a photo of black ‌smoke billowing from a large industrial building.

Zelensky called the attack “absolutely cynical and despicable”, saying that a second Russian ‌drone hit the shopping centre half an hour after the first in ​a deliberate attempt to target emergency services.

“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” Zelensky said on ​Telegram, urging the world to hold Russia ​to account.

Russia is escalating its air war ​on Ukraine as fighting on the battlefield grinds toward the 4-1/2 year ​mark. On Thursday, 17 people were killed in a Russian ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Ukraine has also stepped up its own attacks ⁠on Russia, targeting oil facilities, commercial warehouses and logistics infrastructure with long-range drone strikes.

A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded four others when it struck a car Friday in Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said, adding that two of the injured people were in a serious condition.

Zelensky said a Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600 kilometres from his country’s border. Also struck was the Marinovka military airfield in Russia’s Volgograd region, he said.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported that the Ukrainian drone had set ablaze a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in Perm. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified “industrial facility”.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AP)