A fatal Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s crowded Kremenchuk mall has been denounced by the G7 leaders as an “abominable” war crime.
The G7 leaders, who are gathering in Germany, they promised that Russian President Vladimir Putin and anyone guilty for the attack will be held accountable in a statement on Monday.
The raids on Kremenchuk resulted in at least 18 fatalities and 59 injuries.
The G7 declaration stated that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime.”
In his evening broadcast that was aired on Telegram, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of purposefully attacking people, calling it “one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history.”
Women, children, and ordinary civilians were inside the shopping center, which was in flames with dozens of rescuers and a fire vehicle outside, Zelenskyy said. “A peaceful town, an ordinary shopping centre – women, children, ordinary civilians, inside,” he said.
According to Ukraine’s air force command, two long-range X-22 missiles fired from Tu-22M3 bombers flying out of Shaykovka airfield in the Russian Kaluga area struck the mall.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that missiles were launched at a weapons store in Kremenchuk, resulting in an explosion of ammunition that sparked a fire in a nearby shopping center.
“In Kremenchuk, Russian forces struck a weapons depot storing arms received from the United States and Europe with high-precision air-based weapons. As a result of the precision strike, Western-made weapons and ammunition concentrated in the warehouse … were hit, ” the Moscow defense ministry said in a statement issued on its Telegram channel.
The detonation of stored ammunition for Western weapons caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre located next to the depot, it added.
Speaking at the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Kremenchuk attack showed Putin’s “depths of cruelty and barbarism.”
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
