INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday has killed at least 18 people, Ukrainian
authorities said, amid global outrage toward the attack.Video footage shows plumes of black smoke rising from the burning shopping center in
missiles at a shopping center where there were over a thousand civilians
The mall is on fire, rescuers are fighting the fire
Tuesday that 18 people have died, including one person who succumbed to their injuries in the hospital
Another 59 people were hospitalized with injuries, 25 of whom were placed in intensive care.Dmytro Lunin, the governor of the Poltava region
where Kremenchuk is located, had earlier placed the death toll 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.
