At least 15 people were killed and scores more wounded on Friday when two Russian drones struck a shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, authorities said.
The Ukrainian emergency services said the attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown had killed 15 people, wounding 130 others, 23 of them children.
Zelensky posted a photo of black smoke billowing from a large industrial building and 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.
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Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city roughly 60 kilometres from the front line, has come under repeated Russian attacks throughout the war.
Four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region, Interior Minister Ivan Vygivsky said on Telegram.
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.
Read moreUkraine launches 600 drones at Russia, one of its largest aerial attacks of the war
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”.
(the broadcaster with Reuters and AP)
