Shopping Mall Tragedy: Two Children Among Nine Missing After Kryvyi Rih Mall Strike Kills 16

Nine people, including two children, remain missing after Russian drones struck a crowded shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, as rescuers worked through the night searching the wreckage of an attack that has already killed at least 16 people. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, said early Saturday that nine people were preliminarily listed as missing while emergency crews continued dismantling the ruins of the shopping center.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Two of those unaccounted for are children. The search continued hours after firefighters extinguished a massive blaze at the mall. At least 130 people were injured in Friday’s attack, including 23 children. Twenty-nine people, five of them children, were reported in serious condition. Rescuers later recovered the body of another woman from beneath the rubble, raising the confirmed death toll to 16. The attack unfolded in two waves at one of Kryvyi Rih’s largest shopping centers. Russian drones first hit the building in the afternoon, setting shops ablaze. A second strike followed roughly half an hour later, after emergency workers had arrived at the scene. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, called the attack deliberate and said authorities were still trying to establish the whereabouts of everyone who may have been inside. “An absolute Russian atrocity,” Zelensky said, adding: “We will definitely respond.” Other Topics of Interest Russian Forces Launch 172 Attacks Across Front Line on Friday The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said 416 Russian drones were destroyed or suppressed on the Pokrovsk axis, where two engagements remained ongoing. He urged Ukraine’s partners not to treat the attack as another routine episode of the war. “It is important that the world does not remain silent,” Zelensky said, calling for greater international help to protect Ukrainian lives. “Such strikes are acts of terrorism,” he said, calling for “real pressure on the aggressor.” For those caught inside the mall, the attack quickly became a struggle to escape. Yuliana, an employee at the shopping center, told RFE/RL that smoke filled the area as people shouted and tried to get out. Parts of the ceiling collapsed in a parking area where shoppers and workers had sought shelter. “I was afraid there might be another strike,” she said. “I have a young child.” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also described the attack as deliberate, saying Russia struck the civilian shopping center and then attacked again after rescuers arrived. “This is pure terror,” Sybiha said. According to the minister, the repeated strikes were intended to maximize civilian casualties and called on Ukraine’s partners to respond with tougher sanctions against Russia’s military-industrial complex as well as greater defensive support for Ukraine. “Sanctions and anti-missile capabilities are two tools that save lives,” Sybiha said, adding that Ukraine needs both “without delay.” As darkness fell over Kryvyi Rih, emergency workers, police officers, medics and municipal crews remained at the devastated mall, searching for those still unaccounted for. For nine families, including those of two children, the search continued as they waited for news. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.