Russian strikes kill 6 people in Ukraine, day after shopping complex attack

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone hits a house in southern Russia, killing two children and injuring their parents, officials say.

Russian aerial strikes on Ukraine have killed at least six people and injured 26 others, while a Ukrainian drone attack hit a house in southern Russia, killing two children and injuring their parents, officials on both sides said.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed on Saturday morning that one person was killed in a warehouse fire in the Darnytskyi district following an overnight Russian ballistic missile attack.

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In the Kherson region, three others were killed and 13 wounded after Russian strikes damaged homes and apartment buildings, the regional military administration reported.

In Donetsk region, Russian attacks left one person dead and seven wounded, including five in the front-line city of Kramatorsk, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin, local media reported. In the Sumy region, a drone strike on a house killed one man, while six others were hurt in separate drone attacks across the region, regional officials said, according to reports.

In the city of Kherson itself, a drone strike set a shopping centre ablaze, though no casualties were reported, reports said.

On the other side, in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said two children were killed and two adults wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike.

The latest attacks coincided with ongoing rescue operations in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, where emergency workers searched the charred wreckage of the Sunny Gallery shopping complex following Friday afternoon’s assault.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, said Russian forces targeted the city’s largest shopping centre with jet-powered Shahed drones.

A second wave hit roughly 30 minutes after the first on Friday, allegedly targeting emergency crews responding to the scene.

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed in an update on Saturday morning that the death toll in Kryvyi Rih had risen to 16, with more than 130 wounded, including 22 children.

Zelenskyy called Friday’s attack “absolutely cynical and despicable” and an “act of barbarism”, promising a swift response. “Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” he posted on Telegram.

Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said Friday’s attack began “at 4:30 in the afternoon when the mall is typically crowded,” with a second wave following “just 30 minutes later, with rescue workers from nearby regions called in to help”.

“The attacks come as civilian casualties in the war continue to mount, with July marking one of the deadliest months for civilians on both sides since the full-scale war began. And they are another example of how attacks far beyond the front lines are taking their toll on ordinary people,” she said.