Kryvyi Rig and Mykolaiv strikes kill 18, officials say

Russian strikes killed 18 people in two Ukrainian regions on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials, including 14 in Kryvyi Rig and four in the Mykolaiv region.

Ukrainian officials said the toll from two Russian strikes on a busy shopping centre in the eastern city of Kryvyi Rig had risen to 14. Earlier Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had struck a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rig, his hometown.

Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, had said 91 people were wounded, including 21 seriously, and that shops inside the mall were on fire.

Zelensky said a second drone hit the roof of the building about half an hour after the first strike and had “targeted the emergency responders.” Videos on social media showed rescuers helping wounded people outside as smoke rose from the building.

Interior Minister Ivan Vygivsky said four people were killed in a separate strike in the Mykolaiv region, three of them children.

Kryvyi Rig has come under repeated Russian attacks during the war. The industrial city is about 60 kilometres from the front line.