Ukrainian drones killed at least six civilians in a wave of strikes on Russia overnight that also hit a warehouse owned by online retailer Ozon and an industrial facility in the Samara region, Russian regional officials said on Saturday.
In a post on Telegram, Samara governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said several people had been wounded in the strikes. He did not name the industrial facility struck, but Ukraine’s military said it had struck the region’s Novokuibyshevsk refinery, causing a fire.
Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online retailer, said in a statement on Telegram that work at its Samara region logistics centre in the town of Chapayevsk had been halted after the strike, which it said caused injuries.
The strike follows Russia’s deadly attack on a shopping centre in central Ukraine on Friday. At least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded, authorities said, when drones hit the mall in Kryvyi Rih in what the Ukrainian president called a “cynical and despicable” attack.
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In an evening video post on social media, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the strikes in his hometown as “an absolute Russian atrocity. They’re just monsters. We will definitely respond”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned the attack as “terror by design” and threatened “the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war”.
Four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region on Friday, said the interior minister, Ivan Vygivsky. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people early on Saturday, local authorities said.
The Kyiv city military administration reported a fire in a warehouse in the capital’s Darnytskyi district after issuing an alert for a ballistic missile. One person died and several were injured, it said, citing preliminary information.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone killed a man and wounded four people, according to the regional military administration’s chief, Ivan Fedorov.
Countries allied with Ukraine are to meet on Monday to reaffirm support for Kyiv in the war, at talks held on Ukraine’s independence day.
The meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing will be co-chaired by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. About 10 leaders including the European Council chief, António Costa, will be in Kyiv for the meeting, according to an EU official.
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Zelenskiy urged a strong response from Ukraine’s allies after Russia’s shopping centre attack, saying: “The world must respond to them accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to be possible, Russia must face real accountability.”
– Guardian, Reuters
