The regime of vicious Russian dictator Vladimir Putin committed a brand new bloodbath in its war against Ukraine.
On Monday, Russian missiles fired from strategic bombers hit a shopping mall, killing at least 18 people and wounding practically all of the 1,000 shoppers inside.
‘Decision-Making Centers’ vs Shopping Centers
Monday offered another horrifying case.
Russian missiles apparently targeted and blew up a busy shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Central Ukraine, hundreds of miles away from battlefields in the east and south.
Ukraine’s Air Force command announced on social media that the shopping center. It had more than 1,000 people inside at the time of the strike and was hit two Soviet-era X-22 missiles.
Latest estimates as of Tuesday morning said at least 18 civilians have been killed in the Russian missile strike on the shopping mall in Kremenchuk, which also hosts Ukraine’s biggest oil refinery.
A total of 59 people were seriously injured.
Yermak recalled the recent threats by the Putin regime to strike Ukraine’s decision-making centers. He said only the “sickest imagination” could have “guessed they mean shopping centers.”
⚡️ Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a video of a fire in a shopping center in Kremenchug
"The occupiers launched a missile strike at shopping center. There were more than a thousand civilians. The mall is on fire, rescuers are extinguishing fire, number of victims is unimaginable." pic.twitter.com/Src2qh3Tdf
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 27, 2022
⚡️According to the preliminary information as the result of a missile strike in #Kremenchuk, about 20 wounded, 9 of them are in critical condition. The death of 2 people has been confirmed.
📰Kirill Timoshenko, deputy head of the office of the president of #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ECLNWHg18l
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 27, 2022
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a strike on a mall in #Kremenchuk was deliberate and "one of the most daring terrorist acts in European history."
"Peaceful city, ordinary mall, women inside, children, civilians. This was not a mistaken hit. This was a planned Russian strike." pic.twitter.com/Vnze8pBYbZ
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 27, 2022
⚡️At the moment, as the result of today's shelling of a shopping center in #Kremenchuk, it is known about 16 dead and 59 injured, of which 25 people were hospitalized.
📰City Emergency Service pic.twitter.com/7MIeHZJ6Xh
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 27, 2022
The Ministry of Defense of the aggressor country stated that the mall in #Kremenchuk did not work and that the strikes were carried out on weapons depots.
However, this is a lie: at least 18 people were killed and 36 are still missing as a result of the missile strike. pic.twitter.com/7O2E3pedXK
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 28, 2022
Russia Should’ve Been Declared Sponsor of Terrorism 100 Years Ago
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, in his first reaction to the attack, on the Telegram messaging app, described it as “unimaginable.”
He emphasized the shopping mall in Kremenchuk was “no threat” whatsoever to the Russians and of “no strategic value.” He also insisted it is totally “useless” to have hopes for any “decency or humanity from Russia.”
Ukrainian military experts have commented the vicious attack on a purely civilian target is in line with Putin’s new campaign to bomb Ukraine’s cities as much as possible.
Putin is unleashing a reign of terror to break Ukrainian civilians’ will to resist his already vastly botched and failing invasion.
Putin’s horrifying shopping mall attack in Kremenchuk came precisely against the backdrop of a G-7 summit meeting in Germany attended by US President Joe Biden.
It also came ahead of a summit of the 30-strong US-led NATO alliance in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday.
With it, the bloodthirsty Russian tyrant was evidently sending a message to the free world supporting Ukraine’s fight for freedom that he is going to retaliate for western military aid.
Zelenskyy spoke to the G-7 leaders later on Monday via a video link, using the call to dwell on the sickening shopping mall bloodbath.
He also urged the United States and other G-7 nations to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
This is a decision more than 100 years overdue, since at least the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia, which caused the biggest mass murders in human history.
In a communique after their call with Zelenskyy, the G-7 leaders vowed to support Ukraine against the aggression of Russia “as long as it takes.”
Law enforcement authorities have already established the names of the pilots who shelled the shopping center in #Kremenchuk – Interior Minister Monastyrsky. pic.twitter.com/Bs53LMdFqN
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 28, 2022
"Amstor" shopping mall after the fire pic.twitter.com/L46di4B8cT
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 28, 2022
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of June 28, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/IPLANpKBTb
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 28, 2022
