A Russian missile strike hit a busy shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding about 40, the regional governor said.
The attack caused a large fire and a dark smoke, according to images released by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A Reuters reporter saw charred remains of the mall with the roof collapsed. Firefighters and soldiers pulled out shattered pieces of metal as they searched for survivors.
“We don’t know how many people may be left under the rubble,” the head of the regional rescue service said on television.
Zelensky said more than 1,000 people were at the mall at the time of the attack. He did not elaborate on the deaths, but said: “It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.”
“It is useless to expect decency and humanity from Russia,” Zelensky wrote on the Messaging app Telegram.
A rescue operation was underway and nine of the wounded were in serious condition, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office.
“Rescuers from all surrounding areas are heading to the scene to put out the fire and work to settle the consequences,” he said.
Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 people before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, is on the banks of the Dnipro River in the Poltava region and is home to Ukraine’s largest oil refinery.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.
“We need more weapons to protect our people, we need missile defenses,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office.
Russia, which captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk over the weekend after a weeks-long assault, has stepped up missile attacks on targets across Ukraine in recent days.
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