INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk killed at least 13 people Monday, the regional
governor said, updating an earlier toll.Video footage shows plumes of black smoke rising from the burning shopping center in the industrial
shopping center where there were over a thousand civilians
The mall is on fire, rescuers are fighting the fire
of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history" in his evening broadcast on Telegram.Dmytro Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region
where Kremenchuk is located, said the death toll had risen from 10 to at least 13, with more than 40 people wounded.The Ukrainian defense
ministry said the strike was deliberately timed to coincide with the mall's busiest hours and cause the maximum number of victims.The
Ukrainian air force said the mall was hit by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles fired from Tu-22 bombers from the region of Kursk in western
Russia."The missile fire on Kremenchuk struck a very busy area which had no link to the hostilities," the city's mayor Vitali Maletsky wrote
on Facebook.Lunin denounced the attack as a "war crime" and a "crime against humanity," saying it was a "cynical act of terror against the
civilian population."Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Kyiv's allies to supply more heavy weapons and impose fresh
sanctions on Russia."Russia is a disgrace to humanity and it must face consequences," he wrote on Twitter.Presidential aide Mykhaylo
Podolyak accused Russia of being a "terrorist state."The U.S
ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said the world would "hold the Kremlin accountable for its atrocities in Ukraine."Russia has not yet
In the past, Moscow has denied targeting civilians and accused Kyiv and its Western allies of staging such attacks.The strike in Kremenchuk
comes as leaders of the G7 group of industrialized nations discuss new punitive measures against Moscow over its four-month invasion of
the night of June 25, Russian troops launched a massive missile strike on the territory of Ukraine
High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that arrived in Ukraine last week.Military officials in Kyiv say the system has already been
on our Ukrainian territory," Chief of Ukraine's General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said, specifically addressing the HIMARS system on
eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum.AFP contributed reporting.
