Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to hit back at Russia after its deadly attack on a shopping centre in central Ukraine. At least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded, authorities said, when drones hit the mall in Kryvyi Rih in what the Ukrainian president called a “cynical and despicable” attack on Friday.
In an evening video post on social media, Zelenskiy described the strikes in his hometown: “An absolute Russian atrocity. They’re just monsters. We will definitely respond.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned the attack as “terror by design” and threatened “the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war”.
Four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region on Friday, said the interior minister, Ivan Vygivsky. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people early on Saturday, local authorities said.
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The Kyiv city military administration reported a fire in a warehouse in the capital’s Darnytskyi district after issuing an alert for a ballistic missile. One person died and several were injured, it said, citing preliminary information.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone killed a man and wounded four people, according to the regional military administration’s chief, Ivan Fedorov.
Countries allied with Ukraine are to meet on Monday to reaffirm support for Kyiv in the war, at talks held on Ukraine’s independence day.
The meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing will be co-chaired by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. About 10 leaders including the European Council chief, António Costa, will be in Kyiv for the meeting, according to an EU official.
[ Ukraine imposes sanctions on Aughinish Alumina customers in RussiaOpens in new window ]
Zelenskiy urged a strong response from Ukraine’s allies after Russia’s shopping centre attack, saying: “The world must respond to them accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to be possible, Russia must face real accountability.”
Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence. Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”.
“This case demonstrates that we are operating under a high threat level,” Alexander Dobrindt told reporters.
Ukraine has sanctioned Russian children’s cartoon Masha and the Bear and its producers in a step towards banning the series, the Ukrainian culture minister said on Friday, slamming it as a Russian “propaganda” tool. The cartoon about a little girl and a retired circus bear has been viewed tens of billions of times on YouTube and broadcast in about 100 countries but has faced criticism in Ukraine and among its allies, including the UK and Estonia, as painting Russia in a positive light. The Kremlin has laughed off the allegations.
