Officials: Russian missile strike hits crowded Ukrainian shopping mall

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine - Scores of civilians were feared killed or wounded in a Russian missile strike Monday on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine's central city of Kremenchuk, Ukrainian officials said.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was "unimaginable," citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack.

Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke from a shopping center engulfed in flames, as emergency crews rushed in and onlookers watched in distress.At least 10 people were dead and more than 40 wounded, according to the Ukrainian regional governor.Zelenskyy said the target presented "no threat to the Russian army" and had "no strategic value." He accused of Russia of sabotaging "people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry."The alleged Russian missile strike carried echoes of attacks earlier in the war that caused large numbers of civilian casualties — such as one in March on a Mariupol theater where many civilians had holed up, killing an estimated 600, and another in April on a train station in eastern Kramatorsk that left at least 59 people dead."Russia continues to take out its impotence on ordinary civilians.

It is useless to hope for decency and humanity on its part," Zelenskyy said.Ukrainian firefighters are seen trying to put the fire out a burning shopping mall after a Russian attack in Kremenchuk, Poltava region, Ukraine on June 27, 2022. (Photo by Ukrainian State Emergency Service / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Mayor Vitaliy Maletskiy wrote on Facebook that the attack "hit a very crowded area, which is 100% certain not to have any links to the armed forces."The.