Russian double-tap strike on shopping center in Kryvyi Rih kills at least 16, injures 130
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Editor's note: This story is being updated.
Russian forces launched a daytime drone strike on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih on Aug. 21, killing at least 16 people and injuring 130 others, including 23 children, local authorities said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drones struck in two waves, with the second strike taking place around half an hour after the first, when rescue services were already responding at the scene.
"An absolutely cynical and vile strike was carried out by the Russians against an ordinary shopping center in Kryvyi Rih," Zelensky said.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih's Defense Council, said the second strike was carried out by a jet-powered Shahed-type drone, adding that the drones were flying at extremely low altitudes.
The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration reported shortly after midnight local time that the body of one more person had been recovered from the rubble, bringing the death toll to 16. Vilkul said 130 people were injured, 29 of the which were in serious condition, including five children.
"There are people who have gone missing and cannot be contacted," Vilkul said. "Bloody damn Russian bastards," he added.
Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said Russia was deliberately striking places where civilians gather in broad daylight.
"People came to the shopping center for their ordinary business: to shop, to work, or to spend time with loved ones. For Russia, this makes no difference," Lubinets said.
"The Russian army once again proves that civilians are a deliberate target for it in this war against Ukraine," he added.
The attacks took place at around 4:30 p.m., according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office.
Ivan Vyhivskyi, Internal Affairs Minister, said that in the minutes following the attack on "one of the city's largest shopping and entertainment centers," police and emergency services began evacuating visitors, providing first aid and extinguishing the fire.
Vyhivskyi added that firefighting efforts were being hampered by the constant threat of further strikes and that the fire engulfed a third of the center's total area.
The full extent of the casualties and damage is still being assessed.
The Kryvyi Rih strike came after Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least six people and injured at least 77 others over the previous day, according to local authorities.
Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, has frequently suffered deadly Russian attacks during the full-scale invasion. On April 4, 2025, a Russian ballistic missile struck an area near apartment buildings and a children's playground in the city, killing 19 people, including nine children, and injuring 75 others.
