Russia eyes last big city held by Ukraine, renews attacks on urban centres

KYIV • Ukraine endured another difficult day on the battlefront as Russian forces closed in on the last big city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk while renewing attacks on urban centres.

A Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk yesterday, killing at least two people and wounding 20, said senior Ukrainian officials.

Footage circulated by President Volodymyr Zelensky showed a huge blaze raging in a sprawling building and dark smoke billowing into the sky as onlookers stood outside. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

Mr Zelensky said more than 1,000 people were in the mall at the time of the attack. He gave no details of casualties but said: "The mall is on fire, rescuers are fighting the fire. It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims."

A rescue operation was under way and nine of the wounded were in a serious condition, said Mr Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office.

Poltava region governor Dmytro Lunin denounced the attack as a "war crime... against humanity", calling it a "cynical act of terror against the civilian population".

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 before Russia's Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine, lies on the Dnipro river and is the site of Ukraine's biggest oil refinery.

Ukraine had suffered the loss of eastern city Sievierodonetsk over the weekend after weeks of bombardments and street fighting.

Russian artillery was pounding Lysychansk, just across Siversky Donets River from now-ruined Sievierodonetsk.

Luhansk province governor Serhiy Haidai said Lysychansk was suffering "catastrophic" damage. He urged civilians to evacuate urgently, adding: "The situation in the city is very difficult."

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said the Russians were trying to cut off Lysychansk from the south and Russian war planes had struck near the city.

Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk province make up Ukraine's eastern Donbas region - the country's industrial heartland.

The Donbas became a prime target for the Kremlin after Russian troops failed to take the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the war, which is now in its fifth month.

Russian forces also control territory in the south, including the port city Mariupol, which fell after a long siege that left it in ruins.

Russia's defence ministry yesterday denied responsibility for a missile that hit a Kyiv residential building over the weekend, saying it was likely caused by a failure of Ukraine's air defence system.

Ukraine said an apartment block and a site close to a kindergarten were hit, but Moscow said it believed a Ukrainian Buk missile defence system mistakenly intercepted a Ukrainian-fired S-300 air defence missile which then "fell on a residential building".

REUTERS