Ukraine says ‘cynical’ Russian strike on shopping centre killed 16

KYIV – Russian drones slammed into a busy shopping centre in eastern Ukraine on Aug 21, killing 16 people in an attack condemned as “cynical and despicable” by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The attack on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s home town, comes as Russia has intensified its bombardments of Ukrainian cities in recent months.

Four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region, Interior Minister Ivan Vygivsky said on Telegram.

Videos on social media of the Kryvyi Rih attack showed rescuers rushing to help the wounded on the street outside, as smoke poured out of the building.

A second drone smashed into the roof of the building around half an hour after the first – a repeat “double-tap” strike that Zelensky said in a post on X was “targeting the emergency responders”.

Ukrainian emergency services initially said the attack had killed 15 people, wounding 130 others, 23 of them children. Oleksandr Ganzha, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, later posted on Telegram that “the death toll from the enemy attack has risen to 16”.

Zelensky in his X post condemned “an absolutely cynical and despicable strike... carried out by the Russians against an ordinary shopping centre”.

Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city roughly 60km from the front line, has come under repeated Russian attacks throughout the war.

Allies to meet

The United Nations reported that the civilian death toll in 2026 had risen to its highest level since the first months of the war.

Ukraine’s allies are to meet on Aug 24 to reaffirm their support for Kyiv in talks held on the country’s independence day. The meeting of the Coalition of the Willing will be co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron – joining via video link – with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Around 10 leaders including European Council chief Antonio Costa will be in Kyiv for the coalition meeting, according to an EU official.

Zelensky urged a strong response from Ukraine’s allies. “The world must respond to them accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to be possible, Russia must face real accountability,” he said.

He held a call with UN chief Antonio Guterres on Aug 21, updating him on Russian strikes and the civilian casualties they have caused, the Ukrainian leader said on X.

The European Union’s top diplomat condemned the strike “as terror by design” and threatened “the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war”.

“Russia’s attack against a shopping centre in (Kryvyi Rih) shows the absolute and utter depravity of Moscow’s war,” Kaja Kallas wrote on X, claiming that Moscow “wants to make Ukrainian cities unliveable”.

Kyiv has repeatedly appealed to its allies for additional support as Russia steps up its strikes, with Ukrainian forces struggling in particular to intercept salvos of ballistic missiles.

Ukraine has also escalated retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, in part to try to pressure Moscow into coming to the negotiating table to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Diplomatic efforts have failed to move the two sides towards a deal, with Russia demanding sweeping territorial and political concessions from Kyiv. Zelensky has ruled out agreeing to those terms, viewing it as an effective capitulation that would leave his country dangerously exposed to another Russian attack. AFP