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, including two children.
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, officials said at least two people had been killed by further Russian strikes overnight. The defence ministry in Moscow said it had targeted transport infrastructure and warehouses in the Kyiv region.
The death toll from Friday’s attack reached 16 after another body was retrieved from the rubble overnight, said regional military head Oleksandr Hanzha.
Twenty-three children were among those injured in the shopping centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, he added, 14 of whom were among dozens of survivors still in hospital as of Saturday morning.
“Twenty-three [people] are in serious and extremely serious conditions, including three children – two boys aged 10 and 16 and an 11-year-old girl,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council.
“All have undergone surgery, doctors are providing them with all the necessary assistance.”
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.
Vilkul said the drones had been flying at “extremely low altitudes”, describing the attackers as “animals”.
Rescue teams from seven other Ukrainian regions were urgently deployed to help search for survivors.
