Missile strike on Ukrainian shopping mall a terror act: Zelensky

Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy called the missile strike on a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk that killed 16 people, as one of the “most brazen terrorist acts in European history”.

According to the President, there were some 1,000 civilians inside the busy Amstor mall which was hit by two missiles at about 3.50 p.m. on Monday, the BBC reported.

The strikes completely destroyed the shopping mall.

Blaming Russia for te strike, Zelensky said the mall had no strategic value to Moscow, and posed no danger to its forces, “only the attempt of people to live a normal life, which so angers the occupiers”.

“Only totally insane terrorists, who should have no place on earth, can strike missiles at such an object… Russia continues to place its powerlessness on ordinary citizens,” he added.

In a statement, the Office of the Prosecutor General said that 59 people were also injured in the attack, while 40 others remain missing.

The Office noted that almost half of the injured were in critical condition, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

According to Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the Security and Defence Council, a city stadium was also hit on Monday but did not prove any further details.

Dmytro Lunin, the acting Governor of Poltava Oblast where Kremenchuk is located, said the attack was a crime against humanity, adding that “an obvious and cynical act of terror against the civilian population”.

The missile strike took place as the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK gathered in Germany for the G7 Summit to discuss, among other things, toughening sanctions against Russia, the BBC reported.

In a joint statement, the G7 leaders called the strikes “abominable” and said that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime”.

They vowed to “continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes”.

This is not the first time Kremenchuk, one of Ukraine’s largest an industrial cities with a population of nearly 220,000 people, has been hit by missiles, says the BBC.

There was one strike recorded in April and another at a nearby oil refinery earlier this month.