Ukrainian and Western leaders have denounced the strike as a war crime and a terrorist attack, prompting a swift condemnation by G7 leaders meeting in Europe at the time. It came during an unusually intense barrage of Russian raids across Ukraine, including the capital Kiev, that drew attention to a war that some fear could disappear from the headlines as it continues. Speaking at the end of the G-7 summit in Germany, Macron seemed to address this concern, pledging that the seven industrialized democracies would support Ukraine and maintain sanctions against Russia “as long as necessary and with the necessary intensity.” “Russia cannot and must not win,” he said, adding that Monday’s attack on the mall was “a new war crime.” As he spoke, rescuers combed the charred rubble of a shopping mall in Kremenchuk that authorities said was hit when more than 1,000 afternoon shoppers and workers were inside. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a police station, a train station and a hospital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.” G-7 leaders have said that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians are a war crime.” At Ukraine’s request, the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss the attack. Striking a provocative note, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said Russia would step up its attack until it met its targets, noting that hostilities could end “before the end of the day” if Ukraine complied with Russian demands. order its troops to surrender. . The Kremlin has called on Ukraine to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, to recognize the independence of Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, and to recognize the current situation, an obvious reference gain. Russia has been doing since the beginning of the war. As in other attacks, the Russian authorities claimed that the mall was not the target. Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said warplanes fired surface-to-air missiles at a warehouse containing Western weapons and ammunition, causing powerful explosions that set the mall on fire. Ukrainian officials have directly denied it, saying the mall itself was hit by the strike. Wayne Jordash, a British lawyer working with Ukrainian officials to investigate possible war crimes in the meantime. said initial indications were that there were no military targets nearby, but the investigation is ongoing. He said a factory was also hit nearby. Konashenkov also claimed that the mall was not in use, a false claim denied by witnesses. Kateryna Romashyna, a local resident, told the Associated Press she had just arrived at the mall when the explosion occurred. The explosion tore it down. When another one arrived about 10 minutes later, he realized he had to leave. “I left the spotlight with all my might,” he said. “It was scary”. Fighting tears, he said “you have to be a real monster” to hit a mall. Regional Governor Dmitry Lunin said at least 18 people were killed in the attack and another 59 sought medical help, 25 of whom were hospitalized. The area declared a day of mourning on Tuesday for the victims of the attack. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky said after the visit that many bodies had been identified and that identification could take days, adding that 21 people were missing. Monastyrsky noted that more than 1,000 people who were in the mall when an air raid siren sounded quickly moved to a shelter across the street. “Unfortunately, these people who stayed during the alarm died just because they stayed there,” he added, urging both businesses and customers to follow safety protocols and get to safety quickly after an attack warning. Ukraine’s attorney general, Iryna Venediktova, said the rocket attack was one of Russia’s “crimes against humanity”, noting that the Moscow army was “systematically bombing civilian infrastructure in order to intimidate and kill people.” people, to cause terror in our cities and villages. “ Venediktova stressed the need for Ukrainians across the country to remain vigilant, adding that they would have to wait for a similar strike “every minute”. The unusually intense outbreak of fire in recent days came as G-7 leaders gathered in Europe. They pledged to continue to support Ukraine, and the world’s major economies prepared new sanctions against Russia, including a cap on oil prices and higher tariffs on goods. The Russian strike echoed previous attacks that resulted in heavy civilian casualties – one in March at a Mariupol theater where many civilians had taken refuge, killing about 600, and another in April at a train station in eastern Kramatorsk that killed at least 59 people. On Tuesday, Russian forces struck the Black Sea city of Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region, damaging apartment buildings and killing two people, including a 6-year-old boy. Six other people, including four children, were injured. One of them, a 3-month-old baby, is in a coma, according to local officials. Russia is increasingly using long-range bombers in the war. Ukrainian officials say Russian Tu-22M3 bombers flying over Russia’s western Kursk region have fired rockets, one at a mall and another at a sports arena in Kremenchuk. Zelensky called for more air defense systems from his Western allies to help his forces counterattack. The United States appeared ready to respond to this call, and NATO support for Ukraine will be the focus of this week’s summit. The attack on Kremenchuk came as Russia pushed for a full-scale offensive on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern province of Luhansk – part of its campaign to oust the eastern Donbas region from Ukraine.
Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalist Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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