Inside ruins of shopping center after Russian missile attack

Inside ruins of shopping center after Russian missile attack

More than 1,000 customers and staff were at the mall when a Russian missile hit (Image: AFP)

New photos show the devastation caused when a Russian missile hit a busy Ukrainian shopping center.

More than 1,000 people were doing their business in the Amstor shopping center in central Kremenchuk, a city far from the front lines, when the rocket hit Monday.

At least 18 people were killed in the strike and 59 were injured when shrapnel tore through shop windows and the heat from the blast set the aisles on fire.

Many managed to escape, but the death toll is expected to continue to rise as rescuers dig through the rubble.

CCTV showed people diving into a nearby lake outside the complex as debris rained down around them.

Rescuers were painstakingly spotted through huge piles of rubble on Monday.

Several structures appear to have been completely destroyed by the blast, while isolates full of products were blackened and covered in soot and debris.

The death toll of 18 is expected to rise as rescuers dig through the rubble (Image: AFP)

epa10037739 Firefighters clean up the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine, June 28, 2022. At least 18 bodies were found dead at the scene, Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) said in a Telegram post, and at least 58 injured after Russian airstrikes on the busy shopping center. The one-storey building of a shopping center was hit by Russian missiles in the afternoon on June 27. EPA/OLEG PETRASYUK

The mall is hundreds of miles west of the front line (Picture: EPA)

The attack was labeled a ‘war crime’ because of the blatant attack on civilians (Image: AFP)

Rows of charred groceries reveal the deadly intensity of the heat wave (Image: AFP)

G7 leaders labeled the “horrific” attack a “war crime”, while Ukrainian President Zelensky pointed out that the mall posed no threat to the Russian military” and had “no strategic value”.

Ukrainian intelligence agencies say the attack was deliberately aimed at the mall.

Zelensky added: “Today’s Russian attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk is one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.”

A day after the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the mall was “not functioning” and that it burned down only because the bombing of a nearby ammunition depot had set off a secondary fire that spread outside.

epa10039756 A woman cries by the flowers, transferred to the destroyed Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, June 28, 2022. At least 18 people died after Russian airstrikes on the busy shopping center, Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) said in a Telegram message. The one-storey building of the Amstor shopping center was hit by Russian missiles in the afternoon of June 27. EPA/OLEG PETRASYUK

Shoppers said they had felt relatively safe being nowhere near military targets (Photo: EPA)

Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations claimed the entire incident was “false” or “staged.”

However, several video clips filmed before the blast, including verified footage, show shoppers walking around and businesses opening as usual.

CCTV footage shows one rocket hitting the mall while another hitting a factory in a different location.

Satellite images also show walls and wide railway lines between the two sites, which are 300 meters apart, suggesting a fire spread from one to the other is unlikely.

President Zelensky called the strike a “daring terrorist attack” (Image: AFP)

Maksym Musienko, 26, who worked in an electronics store in the mall and was hospitalized with shrapnel and concussion, told BBC News from his bed: ‘The mall is not a place of danger for the Russians.

“We thought we were far from the border.

“We haven’t invaded anyone, we just want to live.”

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