Ukrainian officials said five people were killed and 67 injured after a Russian drone struck a shopping centre in the city centre of Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said shops and vehicles were hit in the daytime attack, which occurred while the streets were busy. Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said eight children were among those wounded.
Images released by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed firefighters using hoses on burning vehicles as smoke rose over a street in the city.
President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those killed. He said Russian forces had used drones against people near shopping centres. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as a tactic aimed at pressuring Ukraine, saying Russia believed continued attacks on civilians could force concessions.
Recent strikes on shopping centres
According to Ukrainian media, the Pavlohrad attack was the third reported Russian strike on a shopping mall within days. Ukrainian officials said a drone attack on a mall in Sumy on Wednesday killed two people and wounded 20. They also reported that aerial bombing in Sumy on Thursday injured eight people, including three children.
In Zaporizhzhia, the owners of a shopping centre said it was almost completely destroyed in an air strike on Monday. The building was closed at the time and no immediate casualties were reported.
Pavlohrad, a logistics hub near the central city of Dnipro, has previously faced heavy attacks. Two people were killed in a strike on warehouses there last month, according to the report. Ukrainian officials also said Russian drones killed at least 16 people and injured 130 at a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih last month.
Reports of attacks in Russia and occupied areas
Russian officials said Ukrainian seaborne drones struck the shoreline of the resort city of Sochi overnight on Wednesday, injuring 28 people, including two children. They also reported that a Ukrainian drone strike in Novy Oskol, in Belgorod Region, killed one person and wounded six others.
Russian authorities further said attacks in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia killed a 15-year-old girl and a man in separate incidents on Wednesday. The claims could not be independently assessed from the information provided.
Source: BBC News
