The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit a crowded shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk has risen to at least 18 people, with at least 60 wounded, as fighting continues for control of Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian holdout in the eastern Luhansk region.
Regional Governor Dmytro Lunyn announced the updated toll of the strike on June 28 on Telegram as rescue and cleanup operations in Kremenchuk continued overnight.
Lunyn said the mall was "completely destroyed" by the missile strike and that 36 people were still missing. More than 1,000 people were inside the mall at the time of the attack, authorities said.
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Ukraine blamed Russia for the attack, saying that missiles fired from Tu-22 long-range bombers had been used.
Russia's Defense Ministry on June 28 denied it targeted the shopping mall, saying the missiles were fired at a weapons depot in Kremenchuk and that exploding ammunition stocks sparked the deadly fire.
"As a result of a high-precision strike, Western-made weapons and ammunition concentrated in the storage area for further shipment to the Ukrainian grouping of troops in the Donbas were hit," the ministry said in a statement.
"The detonation of stored ammunition for Western weapons caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping center located next to the plant," it added.
Russia also shelled Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, hitting apartment buildings and a primary school, the regional governor said. The shelling killed five people and wounded 22, including children, the governor said.
Russian forces continued to shell Lysychansk, in the Donbas. The head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Hayday, said Ukrainian forces still controlled Lysychansk but its loss was possible as Russia poured resources into the fight.
Britain's Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence bulletin on June 28 that Ukrainian forces continued to consolidate their positions on higher ground in Lysychansk, after abandoning its twin city, Syevyerodonetsk, to the Russians.
The bulletin said Ukrainian forces continued to disrupt the Russians' command and control with successful strikes deep behind Russian lines.
British intelligence assessed that Russian forces in the Donbas are increasingly "hollowed out" and their combat effectiveness has been degraded -- a situation that is "probably unsustainable" in the long term.
"Everyone in the world should know that buying or transporting Russian oil, maintaining ties with Russian banks, paying taxes and duties to the Russian state is giving money to terrorists," he said.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Russia has claimed repeatedly that it is not targeting civilians in the unprovoked war it launched on Ukraine just over four months ago.
Leaders of the G7 called the missile strike a war crime and vowed to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable.
Kremenchuk, an industrial city of just over 200,000, lies on the Dnipro River in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine's biggest oil refinery.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-nato-lysychansk-kremenchuk/31919038.html
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