Russia accused of ‘abominable’ strike on Ukraine mall

(CN) — Russia was accused of launching a missile attack late Monday on a shopping mall and killing at least 18 people, an act condemned by Western leaders meeting in Bavaria as an “abominable” war crime.

The strike on the mall in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine about 120 miles from the front lines in Donbas, came as Western leaders were meeting in the Bavarian Alps for a Group of Seven meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid. With these summits, Western leaders are seeking to find new ways to counter Russia militarily and economically.

Russia's war in Ukraine is increasingly becoming a proxy war between the Kremlin and NATO, and one at risk of broadening as the West supplies advanced weapons, detailed battlefield intelligence and massive financial support to Kyiv. Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that U.S. Special Operations forces, the CIA, and European counterparts inside Ukraine and in neighboring countries are coordinating the flow of Western weapons and training Ukrainian fighters.

The Kremlin denied responsibility for the attack Monday night that left at least 59 people wounded. Videos showed the shopping center engulfed in flames.

G-7 leaders immediately condemned it as further evidence of Russia's war crimes against civilians in Ukraine and said Moscow must be held accountable.

“We solemnly condemn the abominable attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk,” the G-7 said in a statement. “We will not rest until Russia ends its cruel and senseless war on Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the strike “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history” and added that Russia “has become the largest terrorist organization in the world.”

He said “everyone in the world must know that buying or transporting Russian oil, maintaining contacts with Russian banks, paying taxes and customs duties to the Russian state means giving money to terrorists.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Twitter that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime must be held accountable for the attack.

“Russia's attack on civilians at a shopping mall is cruel. We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” he said.

In other tweets, Biden said United States and other G-7 countries “will deliver unwavering, unified commitment to support Ukraine” and carry on with “unprecedented sanctions to hold President Putin accountable — sanctions that will only compound over time to further isolate Russia from the world economy.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this new atrocity would strengthen the determination of Western allies to stand by Ukraine.

“This appalling attack has shown once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism to which the Russian leader will sink,” Johnson said.

With Russia denying that its forces launched the missile, however, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Moscow's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, accused Ukraine of orchestrating the attack on the shopping center to grab attention ahead of the NATO summit set for Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Looks like we are dealing with a new Bucha-style Ukrainian provocation,” Polyanskiy said on Twitter.

In Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, hundreds of civilians were found killed after Russian forces left at the end of April. Russian troops are accused of large-scale atrocities there and elsewhere in Ukraine. Moscow alleges Ukraine of staging scenes to make it look like Russian forces were behind the atrocities.

“One should wait for what our Ministry of Defense will say, but there are too many striking discrepancies already,” Polyanskiy said.

Ukraine’s air force command said the shopping center was hit by two Russian X-22 cruise missiles fired by Tu-22M long-range bombers.

Reports from Kremenchuk described awful scenes.

Ludmyla Mykhailets told Reuters that she was shopping with her husband when the blast threw her into the air. She and her husband were treated for injuries at a hospital.

“I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing,” she said.

Rescue crews were searching through rubble on Tuesday to find survivors. It took hours to put out fires raging at the mall.

“It is deplorable, to say the least. Any sort of civilian infrastructure, which includes obviously shopping malls, and civilians should never ever be targeted,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The attack on Kremenchuk was one of several recent strikes that have killed civilians, Ukraine said. Since the weekend, Russia has fired a barrage of rockets at Ukraine with strikes hitting military targets but also killing civilians.

Ukraine said Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has killed five people and wounded at least 30, and that a Russian attack killed at least eight civilians as they were out collecting water in Lysychansk, an eastern city where fighting is raging. By Tuesday, Russia-backed separatist fighters said they had occupied parts of Lysychansk and that Ukrainian forces were retreating from the city.

The U.N. Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to focus on the strike at the Kremenchuk mall.
The U.N.'s human rights agency says it has recorded 4,731 civilian deaths and 5,900 wounded civilians since Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24. At least 330 children have been killed and 489 wounded. The actual number of civilian casualties is believed to be much higher.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau

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