Ukraine has said that at least 14 people were killed and over 120 others wounded, including 22 children, due to Russian drone strikes on the city of Kryvyi Rih in the country’s central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih Defence Council, said on Friday on Telegram that the strikes targeted the city’s largest shopping complex, resulting in a fire.
The death toll as of 1700GMT was 14, while 121 other people were injured, including 22 children, Vilkul said.
He added that 29 of those injured are in critical condition.
He said search and rescue efforts are ongoing at the site, adding, “Unfortunately, the number of victims may increase," while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack an "act of terrorism".
"The attack drones struck in two waves, half an hour after the first hit and the fire; there was a second strike targeting the emergency responders," he added.
Russian authorities have not yet commented on the strike.
Overnight strikes
Earlier on Friday, Moscow and Kiev traded accusations about overnight air strikes, which Ukrainian authorities said killed at least two people and injured eight others in the country's northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said two people were killed and two others injured in Russian strikes that damaged civilian infrastructure.
In the Sumy region, six people were injured, including a 16-year-old young woman, Gov. Oleh Hryhorov said.
In the Odesa region, a Russian drone attack damaged the Tabaky border checkpoint with Moldova, prompting authorities to suspend operations, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed that Russia launched 135 drones overnight, 107 of which were suppressed in the northern, southern, and eastern parts of the country.
Zelenskyy also said in a statement on X that Ukrainian strikes hit an oil refinery in Russia’s Perm region, more than 1,600 kilometres from the border, and the Marinovka military air base in the Volgograd region. He added that there were also “results in the Black Sea".
Zelenskyy also claimed a Russian Su-34 fighter jet was damaged in a previous strike on the Akhtubinsk air base, while a facility "used for storing, preparing, and launching attack drones" was hit in the town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
Perm Gov. Dmitry Makhonin confirmed a Ukrainian drone attack on the region, saying one person was injured and an industrial facility was damaged. He did not identify the facility.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces intercepted or destroyed 325 Ukrainian drones overnight across 15 regions of the country, as well as over the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
It also claimed that Moscow struck Ukrainian port infrastructure used by the troops, including warehouses containing weapons, military equipment, and supplies at the port of Reni.
Independent verification of the claims remains difficult due to the ongoing war.
