A Russian air attack reportedly hit a busy shopping mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, where 18 people were killed and 36 are still missing, authorities said on Monday.
Dmytro Lunin, the acting governor of Poltava Oblast, said on Tuesday that firefighters were still searching for survivors in the rubble. He also said the death toll could continue to rise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said up to 1,000 people were in the building before the air attack was declared.
“Fortunately, as far as we know, at that time, many people managed to get out, they managed to get out, but there were still people inside – workers and some visitors,” he said.
Video from the location showed smoke pouring from the building, which was consumed by flames. The attack occurred around 4 p.m. local time, according to Volodymyr Solohub, an official in the Poltava Oblast administration.
The Russian attack, which occurred far from any frontline in the central city of Kremenchuk, was denounced around the world, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling it a “war crime.”
Ukraine claimed the Russian military had murdered civilians intentionally. The Kremlin claimed its military had hit an arms depot and that the mall was empty.
Zelenskyy called the attack “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history.”
On Tuesday, families of the missing waited in line at a hotel across the street from the shopping mall, where rescuers had set up a base. Exhausted firefighters sat on a curb after a night of fighting the fire and looking for survivors, mainly with no success.
Dousing his face from a water bottle, a rescue worker named Oleksandr said his team had toiled all night digging through the rubble.
“We pulled out five bodies. We didn’t find anybody alive,” he said.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova stated, “I think it’s like systematical shelling of civilian infrastructure – with what aim? To scare people, to kill people, to make terror in our cities and villages.”
At a meeting in Germany, Group of Seven (G7) leaders disclosed plans for a price cap on Russian oil, part of a new strategy to starve Russia of the resources it uses to finance the war without exacerbating a worldwide financial crisis.