The Russian Defense Ministry has admitted responsibility for a missile attack that destroyed a shopping mall in a central Ukrainian city but denied reports of civilian casualties, saying it hit a target. military spending.
Ukrainian officials say at least 20 people died in an air strike on Kremenchuk on Monday, 25 are being treated in hospitals and 40 are missing. Rescue workers are still searching the scene and authorities expect the death toll to rise.
The attack, which likely resulted in one of the worst civilian casualties in an attack since Russia invaded the neighboring country in February, was the latest in a series of cyber attacks. Missiles in a conflict show no signs of abating.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the war was going “as planned” and it would only end once Ukraine surrendered to Moscow’s demands.
“The Ukrainian side can end everything by the end of today. They only need to order the Ukrainian army to lay down its weapons and fulfill Russia’s conditions. And it will all be over,” Peskov told reporters.
Putin’s conditions for ending the war were ambiguous throughout the conflict. Peace talks collapsed in the spring as Russia hardened its stance on taking more territory.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 1,000 people were at the mall when the strike occurred, describing the death toll as “unthinkable”.
In a speech to the Ukrainian people after the attack, Zelenskyy said Russia had become “the largest terrorist organization in the world” and called on Western countries to impose sanctions on the country.
In the hours immediately following the attack, Russian state media and pro-aggression social media channels said it was a “planned provocation by Ukraine” staged to accuse Moscow of crimes. war evil.
But in a rare deviation from the reality of blaming civilian deaths on Ukraine, Russia claims it has hit an arsenal in a factory storing high-precision air-launched missiles to destroy the source. American and European supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Tuesday: “The explosion of ammunition for Western weapons in storage led to a fire in a derelict shopping mall next to the factory.
Earlier Russian missile attacks targeted and severely damaged the oil refinery of Kremenchuk, Ukraine’s largest oil processing facility, on the outskirts of the city.
Monday’s attack is part of a growing assault on Ukrainian cities far from the front lines in recent days. A British intelligence press conference on Tuesday described the wave of attacks as “unusually violent”.
The latest attacks coincided with the G7 summit held in Germany and Zelenskyy’s call for G7 leaders to increase arms supplies and sanctions against Russia.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the Kremenchuk attack was “the latest in a string of atrocities”.
The White House’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described it as “completely ill” and said the organization’s security council – of which Russia is a member – would meet on Tuesday to “discuss the matter.” Russia’s atrocities against civilians”.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting populated areas and says it only shoots at military facilities.
According to the UN, at least 4,700 civilians have been killed since the invasion, although Ukrainian officials say the death toll could be many times higher.
