KYIV/MOSCOW – At least 14 people were killed and 121 others injured in a Russian drone strike on a shopping center in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine on Friday, local authorities said.
The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration said 29 of the injured, including five children, were in serious condition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack drones struck the shopping center in two waves.
The second strike came about half an hour after the initial attack targeting emergency responders, Zelensky said.
"Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts. And the world must respond to them accordingly," Zelensky said.
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Meanwhile, Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said the government had allocated 35 billion hryvnyas ($785 million) to protect energy facilities and strengthen regional resilience ahead of winter, according to public broadcaster Suspilne.
Addressing parliament, Shmyhal said construction of about 200 second-level protective monolithic structures had already been completed. While no defense system can provide 100-percent protection, damage to protected facilities can be repaired within weeks, he said.
Russian forces seize 11 settlements
In the past week, Russian forces seized 11 settlements and conducted one massive and nine group strikes against Ukrainian military, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday.
The 11 settlements are in three regions, namely Kharkiv, Donbas and Zaporizhzhia, according to the ministry.
The strikes targeted Ukrainian defense enterprises, logistics hubs, energy and transport infrastructure, facilities producing ground robotic systems, drones and related components, the ministry said.
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It added that missile launch sites, ammunition and fuel depots, supply facilities, and temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries were also hit.
