Russian Double-Tap Strike Kills 16 at Shopping Mall in Zelensky Hometown

A Russian strike on a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih killed 16 people and wounded 130 on August 21, Ukrainian officials said.

The city is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Regional authorities reported that the attack came in two waves. The second drone hit about half an hour after the first, while rescue workers were already on the scene.

Among the injured were 22 children. Four people remained missing hours after the strike. Zelensky called the attack cynical and despicable and urged stronger international pressure on Russia.

Ukrainian forces reported hitting Russian drone storage, warehouses, command posts and communications sites in occupied Donetsk and Crimea the same period. Russian overnight strikes elsewhere in Ukraine killed at least five people.

The mall strike followed a similar attack on a shopping centre in Kramatorsk earlier in the week that killed two women.