At least 15 people were killed and 130 others injured in Russian drone strikes on a shopping mall in central Ukraine. The attacks hit Kryvyi Rih on Friday, August 21, and were described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a double-tap strike: an initial wave of drones struck the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded.
Zelenskyy condemns attack as terrorist act
Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of President Zelenskyy, who warned that Ukraine would respond to the attack. "Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Kryvyi Rih has been struck multiple times since the war started more than four years ago. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, confirmed that the attack killed at least 15 people and injured 130, including 23 children.
Other attacks across Ukraine
Earlier on Friday, two women, aged 73 and 66, were killed and two others wounded in a Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Kharkiv region, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Another Russian attack on Friday evening killed four people, including three children, in Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region, emergency services said.
Large-scale Russian strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer. The United Nations said last week that the capital Kyiv was one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured in the city.
Also on Friday, Russia pounded Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones in a night-time aerial attack that killed 16 people. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people, while nine were killed in the city two days before that.
