Ukraine said Russia had deliberately killed civilians when it pounded a shopping mall in Kremenchuk. Moscow said the mall was empty and had hit a nearby weapons depot. read more “The Russian missile hit this site with precision. De-li-be-ra-te-ly … It is clear that the Russian assassins received these exact coordinates,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an afternoon speech. video. “They wanted to kill so many people.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Authorities say about 36 people are still missing. Further east in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, a key battlefield in Russia’s offensive in the industrial heart of the Donbas, the governor reported increased military action. The situation in Lysychansk is similar to that in the twin city of Sievierodonetsk more than a month ago, when Russians began taking buildings after construction, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Wednesday. Sievierodonetsk fell in Russia on Saturday. “The situation in Lysychansk is very difficult,” Gaidai told television earlier. “The Russians are using every weapon at their disposal … and without distinguishing whether the targets are military or not – schools, kindergartens, cultural institutions,” he said. “Everything is being destroyed. This is a scorched earth policy.” Russian forces are trying to encircle Lysychansk, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Wednesday. The mayor of the southern city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevych, said a high-rise apartment building was hit this morning and rescuers were working there. Russia has denied targeting civilian areas during its four-month offensive against Ukraine. The United Nations says at least 4,700 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded on February 24. In the Dnipropetrovsk region of eastern Ukraine, Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said the bodies of a man and a woman were found buried under the rubble of a transport company office hit by a Russian rocket on Tuesday. Earlier, it said Russia had fired six rockets into the region on Tuesday, three of which were shot down. Reuters could not verify the account. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for comment via email. Separately, Russian-based officials said security forces had arrested Kherson Mayor Ihor Kolykhayev on Tuesday for refusing to follow Moscow’s orders. A local official said the mayor had been abducted. read more Hersonissos, a port city on the Black Sea, is located just northwest of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. In recent days, Ukrainians have also described attacks in the southern region of Odessa and in Kharkiv in the northeast. The Russian invasion, the largest attack on a European state since World War II, has led to rising food and energy prices worldwide and sparked global security concerns. Finland and Sweden on Tuesday moved one step closer to joining NATO’s Western military alliance, whose members have supplied weapons to Ukraine after Turkey withdrew its opposition to joining. read more The development consolidates the alliance’s response in Russia – especially in the Baltic Sea, where the accession of Finland and Sweden would give NATO military supremacy.
“COLOSSOUS MISTAKE”
The Kremenchuk attack sparked a wave of international condemnation. “We have run out of words to describe the nonsense, futility and cruelty of this war,” UN Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council. While Kyiv said there was no military target in the area, the Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit a nearby weapons depot that exploded, which exploded, causing the fire to spread to the nearby Kremenchuk shopping center. Moscow’s claim that the mall was empty was refuted by injured survivors such as Ludmyla Mykhailets, 43, who said she was shopping there with her husband when the blast threw her “head first” into the air. read more Zelensky accused Russia of being a “terrorist state” at the United Nations, urging the Security Council to expel Moscow from the United Nations. Russia has accused Zelensky of using the address as a “public relations campaign” for weapons. read more Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, but so far have failed to curtail Moscow’s main source of income: oil and gas export revenues, which have actually risen amid the threat of a supply disruption leading to a rise. of world prices. The leaders of the Group of Seven announced a new approach – leaving Russian oil on the market, while imposing a price cap. The United States has also sanctioned more than 100 new targets and banned new imports of Russian gold, in line with G7 commitments. read more In a rare public outcry over Russia’s war rhetoric by one of its richest men, aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska told reporters in Moscow: “I think the destruction of Ukraine would be a colossal mistake, including for us.” read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional reports by Bogdan Kochubey at the Kiev and Reuters offices. Writes Himani Sarkar. Edited by Stephen Coates Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
