Search for survivors after 16 killed by Russian double-tap strike on Ukraine mall
Search for survivors after 16 killed by Russian double-tap strike on Ukraine mall
Jaroslav Lukiv; Claire Keenan Sat, August 22, 2026 at 6:42 AM UTC
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A number of people are reported to be trapped in the rubble of the shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih
Rescuers in Ukraine worked through the night to search for survivors in the wreckage of a shopping centre hit by a deadly Russian double-tap drone strike.
Sixteen people were killed and 130 injured in the busy mall in Kryvyi Rih on Friday, local officials said. Nine people are reportedly still missing.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the "cynical and despicable" attack was carried out in two waves, with the second strike targeting emergency workers at the scene.
Meanwhile, local officials said at least two people had been killed by further Russian strikes early on Saturday. The defence ministry in Moscow said it had targeted transport infrastructure and warehouses.
Twenty-three children are among those injured by Friday's attack on the shopping centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said regional military head Oleksandr Hanzha.
Hanzha saidthe death toll had reached 16 after another body was retrieved from the rubble overnight. He previously said 29 people were in a serious condition, prompting fears the toll could rise further.
Dramatic footage verified by the BBC showed the second drone hitting the already burning mall in Zelensky's hometown. Russia's military has not commented.
Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions were urgently deployed to help search for survivors.
Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the Russian drones were flying at "extremely low altitudes", describing the attackers as "animals".
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"There are missing people who are not responding to calls," the mayor added.
As rescue efforts continued overnight, local authorities in Kyiv said one person had been killed after a fire broke out in a warehouse following an alert for a ballistic missile.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike killed at least one man and injured four people, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.
Specially trained psychologists have been deployed to help some survivors after the attack
Four people - including three children - were killed in separate Russian attacks in Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region on Friday, and another two in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, local officials said.
And on Thursday 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
Earlier on Friday, Ukraine's military said it carried out strikes on an oil refinery and a military airfield deep inside Russia.
Ukraine has in recent months intensified attacks on Russian energy facilities, as well as on warehouses of the country's largest online retailer Wildberries.
Kyiv describes them as legitimate targets because they help finance Russia's war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently Moscow controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the south-east.
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
