As rescue teams continue to search for victims and air-raid alarms sound from time to time in Kremenchuk, new details emerge about the Russian missile attack that killed at least 20 people in a shopping mall.
While the rescue teams they are still looking for victims and the air-raid alarms sound from time to time in Kremenchuk, videos give an account of the moment in which a Russian missile fell killed at least 20 people in a shopping mall.
“The instantaneous spread of fire in the center due to the shock wave made it look like a tornado of fire devouring everything in its path,” explained to Efe Oleksandr Lysenko, the second in command in the emergency operation to control the situation.
Lysenko stated that the power of fire from the detonation of a missile is very different from that of a conventional fire, with temperatures so high that they can melt anything, even metal.
About a thousand people between emergency services, firefighters and police, They work to find the 21 still missing after the attack.
The Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, Denys Monastyrskiy, went to Kremenchuk to show that in the area there was no military material of any kind. In addition, the authority accused Russia of break the basic principles of war by attacking civilians.
But even this walk through a completely charred space had to be interrupted by an air-raid siren. The above, as another possible Russian bombardment was announced.
Attack on Kremenchuk shopping center
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported that the two cruise missiles used were fired from a TU-22 strategic bomber from the Russian region of Kursk, near the border.
The second of the projectiles exploded near an industrial company located in the back of the mall, although separated by about a hundred meters and a high wall.
Mykola Danyleiko, one of the directors of the company, said that two of his workers were injured minor by glass cuts and that there was no military equipment of any kind there.
Since shortly after the attack it was speculated that this company, specialized in asphalt mixing machinery, could be the target of the attack and not the Amstar mall, It was very busy on a Monday afternoon.
According to medical sources, 25 people have been hospitalized and four of them are in intensive care. Among those interned are people with amputations, fractures and shrapnel wounds.
Workers, the most affected
Oleksander, a 19-year-old who worked in a mobile accessories store in the mall He reported that he was unharmed.
This because a friend called him just before the explosion and went to one of the access doors to talk.
“Inside, at that time, we were only workers from the stores and security people because the air raid alarm had started to sound earlier,” added the young man, who visited a co-worker, Yulia, who was slightly injured.
Oleksander even has the exact minute of impact written down, Monday at 3:52 p.m. just ten minutes after the sirens sounded to warn of a possible attack. According to his story, the vast majority of people left the center, which prevented a major tragedy.
“There was a very strong explosion in the back and a shock wave. First there was a lot of smoke and then a fire that spread very quickly.” counted.
The G7, which brings together USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada, and the European Union have described the attack on the mall as a “war crime”.
“The Russian state has become the largest terrorist organization in the world,” said for his part the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski.