Russia Attacks Ukrainian Shopping Center; At Least 14 Dead

At least 14 people died in Russian drone attacks on a busy shopping center in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday. The death toll could still rise, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, who reported the incident on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose hometown is Kryvyi Rih, condemned the attack as "absolutely cynical and despicable." He stated that the strike was a deliberate attempt to target rescue workers responding to a fire caused by an initial drone strike. A second drone reportedly hit the shopping center half an hour later. Zelenskyy urged the international community to hold Russia accountable, calling such attacks "acts of terror."

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Such attacks are simply acts of terror. The world must react accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to prevail, Russia must be held accountable.

The injured count in Kryvyi Rih has reached 103, with 27 sustaining severe injuries, including a child. Several shops within the shopping center caught fire. Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian authorities reported two deaths in the eastern Kharkiv region due to separate Russian drone attacks on the village of Lebyazhye, where two women aged 66 and 73 were killed and two others injured.

This is not the first attack on Kryvyi Rih recently. The city, located about 350 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, was targeted by Russian military drones and ballistic missiles just days prior. Those attacks resulted in two civilian deaths and nearly a dozen injuries, according to official figures.

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The death toll after the attack on a busy shopping center in southeastern Ukraine could still rise. At least 14 people have died in the attack.