Ukrainian officials say at least 2 killed as the missile hits the mall

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SLOVIANSKI, UKRAINE – Dozens of civilians were killed or injured after a Russian missile attack targeted a crowded shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, Ukrainian officials said Monday.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told Telegram that the death toll was “staggering” and that there were more than 1,000 civilians at the time of the attack.

A few minutes later, Kirill Tymoshenko, vice president of the presidential office, told Telegram that at least two people were killed and about 20 injured, nine of them in critical condition.

Zelensky stressed that the goal “poses no threat to the Russian army” and “has no strategic value”. He accused Russia of “trying to lead people a normal life, which in turn disturbs the invaders.”

“Russia continues to be powerless against ordinary civilians. “His hope of decency and humanity is useless,” Zelensky said.

On Monday, the mayor of Kremenchuk said people were killed and injured in the attack on a “heavily populated area” of military significance, but did not specify the details of the victims.

“The missile attack on Kremenchuk hit a very crowded place and it is 100% certain that it has nothing to do with the military. The mayor of the city, Vitaly Malecki, wrote on Facebook: “There are deaths and injuries”, without specifying the death toll.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, ambulance crews were present on the spot.

Ukraine’s regional governor Dmitry Lunin confirmed that more than 1,000 civilians were in the mall at the time of the attack. Writing on Telegram, Lunin said the building is still on fire.

According to the local governor, the attack occurred when Russia carried out a global assault on the city of Lisichansk, Russia’s last stronghold in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine, “shooting” land and air. Western leaders have promised strong and sustained support for Kiev.

This was announced by Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the Military Alliance, as NATO meets for a summit in Spain where greater military assistance to Ukraine will be agreed, including secure communications and anti-drone systems.

Luhansk Governor Sergi Haidai said Russian forces have rebelled against Lisichansk in recent days after capturing the nearby city of Siyevierodonetsk. Seizing the wider Donbas region from Ukrainian government control is part of an intensified Russian offensive, which Western experts say has become the new main target of President Vladimir Putin’s five-month war with Ukraine.

“The city is set ablaze both from the air and from the ground. “After Sievierdonetsky’s capture, the enemy army did its best to capture (our) our last stronghold in the Luhansk region: Lisichansky,” Haidai told The Associated Press.

Haidai said the Russians were trying to block the city from the south and “destroy everything their artillery and multiple rocket launchers provided.” In recent weeks, Russian troops have occupied several villages and towns southeast of Lisichansk, trying to prevent the city from entering from the south.

Meanwhile, in the west, the mayor of Slovyansk city, potentially the next big battlefield, said Russian forces fired cluster munitions on the city early in the morning, even in a residential area.

Authorities say the number of deaths and injuries has yet to be confirmed. AP witnessed a fatal case: a man’s body lay in the door jamb of the car, with blood pouring from his chest and his head scattered on the floor.

Ukrainian forces have spent weeks consolidating their defensive forces around Slovyansk, as Lisyansk could be Russia’s next major target in the event of a fall. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia wants to “conquer and completely destroy” Slovyansk.

A shock wave on Monday blew up most of the windows of nearby buildings and parked cars, contaminating the floor with broken glass.

“Now everything is ruined. We only live in this part of the building. “Danny is not there,” said Valentina Vitkovska, a local resident, crying as she talked about the blast. “I can’t even call to tell the others what we found.”

Zelensky’s office said at least six civilians have been killed and another 31 injured in Russian bombing of various Ukrainian cities in the past 24 hours, including major cities in the south and east of the country, excluding Kiev and Kremenchuk. attack.

Russian forces are said to have killed two people and injured five overnight in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, and continue to target the important southern port of Odessa. The missile attack destroyed residential buildings and injured six people, including a child.

Governor Haidai said at least five tall buildings and the city’s last road bridge were damaged in Lisichansk the other day. The main highway connecting the city to the government-controlled area further south was made impassable by bombing.

Such bombings also make it difficult for civilians to evacuate, Haidai said. The pre-war population of the city was around 100,000, of which about one-tenth remains.

Analysts say that Lisichansky’s location on the banks of the Siversky Donetsk River, as well as its large area surrounded by hills, is a huge plus for the Ukrainian defenders of the city.

“It is a very difficult nut to break. “The Russians could have spent months and years overthrowing Lisichansky,” military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.

The Siversky River in Donetsk surrounds Lisichansk from the north and east, while the Ukrainian army continues to occupy the lands west of the city, using it for weapons and humanitarian aid.

Other development

– In the German Bavarian Alps, the leaders of the Group of Seven pledged to continue supporting Ukraine “as long as necessary”.

In a joint statement Monday after meeting with Zelensky via video link, the leaders reiterated their “unwavering commitment to the Ukrainian government and people to courageously defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their country”.

Meanwhile, the US appears poised to respond to Zelensky’s call for additional air defense systems after Russian troops struck Kiev with long-range missiles on Sunday. It appears that the United States will announce that it has purchased an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Ukraine.

The missile that hit a residential building in Kiev on Sunday was a Ukrainian air defense missile launched to shoot down a Russian missile, the Russian defense ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov also said on Monday that Russian artillery fire destroyed US-supplied howitzers and several other Ukrainian artillery detachments.

He also said that four guided missiles launched by the Russian air force hit the target on Sunday – the Artem factory in Kiev, which produces ammunition for Ukraine’s many missile launches – and that Russian troops destroyed two groups of “foreign mercenaries. “near Lisichankashka.

Konashenkov’s claims cannot be independently verified.

– Pro-Russian separatists say some Ukrainian civilians are trapped in a nitrogen chemical plant in Sivierodonetsk.

According to the Russian news agency “Interfax”, Andrei Marochko, spokesman for the so-called People’s Republic of Luhansk, said that some civilians remained in the factory “because they thought it would be safer there”.

Ukrainian officials said the facility was bombed again on Saturday after Kiev forces withdrew from Siyevierodonetsk and handed the city over to Moscow on the largest battlefield in weeks.

– The UK Defense Ministry says Russian military forces will rely more on reserves in the weeks following the war.

The British Defense Ministry said in daily intelligence that the main focus of Russian operations remains in the Sievierdonetsk-Lisichansk region, but Moscow is “now trying to restore momentum on the northern axis of Izium”.

Analysts say Russia’s appeal to reservists could drastically change the balance of the war, but it could also have political ramifications for President Vladimir Putin’s government, who described the Russian invasion as a “special military operation” in Ukraine. .

– The president of Moldova traveled to neighboring Ukraine on Monday, visiting the city of Bucha, site of the alleged massacre of Russia, along with other suburbs of Kiev.

“The economic costs are not important, the political costs are not important, we must stop the war and make sure that this type of atrocity never happens again,” said Maia Sandu.

According to his social media office, he will meet Sandu Zelenski during the visit.

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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Alexander Stashevsky was featured in this report in Kiev, Ukraine.

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Follow AP War coverage here https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Source: Washington Post

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