- Moscow is claiming a fire in the mall caused by a strike at the weapons depot
- 36 people missing after the attack away from the front line
- “I blew my head off first, the splinters hit my body,” the survivor says
- Ukraine reports a separate missile attack on the city of Dnipro
- G7 countries announce goal of capping Russian oil price
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine, June 28 (Reuters) – Firefighters searched the rubble of a Ukrainian mall on Tuesday where authorities said 36 people were missing after a Russian missile attack that killed at least 18 people. a regional governor reported another “enemy attack.” East.
The attack on the central city of Kremenchuk and the reported strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region were far from any front line. The attack on the mall sparked a wave of global condemnation, and Frenchman Emmanuel Macron called it a “war crime.”
Ukraine said Moscow had deliberately murdered civilians in Kremenchuk. Russia said it had hit a nearby weapons depot and falsely claimed the mall was empty.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
The governor of Dnipropetrovsk said rescue workers were looking for people under the rubble in the region’s main city, Dnipro.
Officer Valentyn Reznychenko said Russia fired six missiles, three of which were shot down. The railway infrastructure and an industrial company had been destroyed and a service company was burning.
“Massive enemy attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region. Six missiles !!!” wrote in the Telegram app.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the governor’s account. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comments sent by e-mail.
At a summit in Germany, the leaders of the G7’s industrialized democracies announced plans for a price cap on Russian oil, designed to deprive Russia of resources for war without aggravating a global energy crisis.
The following is a NATO summit in Spain, in which the Western military alliance is expected to announce the change of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to a higher state of alert and a review of its strategic framework for qualifying. Moscow opponent.
Also forced to outrage Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that Turkey had agreed to support Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. Read more
Turkey’s objections to accession bids, which if successful would be the biggest change in European security in decades, had threatened to overshadow a summit fighting for unity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
PARENTS OF MOURNING
Relatives of the missing in Kremenchuk were lined up in a hotel in front of the remains of the mall, where rescuers had set up a base. Adults and children, some in tears, lit candles and laid flowers in homage to the dead. Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of deliberately attacking civilians in “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its missiles had hit a nearby weapons depot that stored Western weapons, which exploded and caused the fire to spread to the nearby mall.
Kyiv said there were no military targets in the area.
“Russia’s goal is for as many Ukrainians as possible to close their eyes forever, for the rest to stop resisting and submit to slavery,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian General Staff, told Twitter.
Lifeguards work at a mall site hit by a Russian missile attack as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine in Kremenchuk, Poltava region, Ukraine, in this photo published on June 28, 2022 Press Service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Brochure via REUTERS
Read more
Russia described the mall as empty and disused. But this contradicted the relatives of the dead and missing, and the dozens of injured survivors, such as Ludmyla Mykhailets, 43, who had bought there with her husband when the blast blew her up.
“I flew upside down and the splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing,” he said at a hospital where he was being treated. Read more
G7 leaders said the attack was “abominable.” Russian President Vladimir Putin and those responsible should be held accountable, they said in a statement.
Russia denies intentionally attacking civilians in its “special military operation” that has destroyed Ukrainian cities, killed thousands and evicted millions from their homes.
Ukraine endured another hard day on the battlefields of the eastern Donbas region after last week’s loss of the now-ruined city of Sievierodonetsk.
Russian forces are now trying to storm Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donets River from Sievierodonetsk, to complete the capture of Luhansk, one of the two eastern provinces that Moscow intends to conquer in the name of separatist powers.
HAIR PRICE HEAD
Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, but so far have failed to reduce Moscow’s main source of revenue: revenues from oil and gas exports, which have actually increased as the threat of disruption of supply has raised world prices.
At the end of its annual summit, the G7 announced a new approach: to leave Russian oil on the market while imposing a limit on the price countries could pay.
“We invite all countries with like-minded ideas to consider joining our actions,” they said in a statement.
The United States also imposed sanctions on more than 100 new targets and banned new imports of Russian gold, acting on commitments made by the G7. Read more
With the summit action now being moved to NATO, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said a new strategic concept “would describe in harsh terms the threat posed by Russia and the way it has broken peace in Europe. “
This marks an exit from NATO’s post-Soviet policy that turned Moscow into a potential partner.
Dmitry Rogozin, a former Russian ambassador to NATO and now head of Russia’s space agency, responded by posting satellite images and coordinates of the summit site, the Pentagon, the White House and other Western state buildings.
“Today marks the opening of the NATO summit in Madrid, in which Western countries will declare Russia their worst enemy,” Rogozin wrote on social media. “Roscosmos publishes satellite photographs of the summit site and the same ‘decision centers’ that support Ukrainian nationalists.”
In recent days, there has been an increase in long-range Russian missile attacks from the front line.
In Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine where Russian troops were pushed into a counteroffensive in May, authorities said nine people were killed in bombings that hit targets such as apartment buildings and a school. Read more
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Additional reports by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk in the Kyiv and Reuters offices; Written by Peter Graff and Nick Macfie; Edited by Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich
Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.