16 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine shopping mall

KYIV, Aug 22: Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine, officials said Saturday, while a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Krasnodar region killed two others, a day after a strike on a Ukrainian shopping center killed 16 people.

Moscow’s forces have recently intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of US-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.

Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky said that one person was killed and another wounded in the latest attacks when ballistic missiles hit railway infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, overnight.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces had hit a locomotive depot.

In a separate attack, local authorities said two people were killed Saturday afternoon in a Russian ballistic missile strike on the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital.

Russian drone strikes also killed one person overnight in the Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said Saturday, with a daytime attack killing three others and wounding 15. Zelensky said that three people were also wounded in an attack on a minibus in the regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia.

In Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said that two children were killed and two adults were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike.

The latest attacks came a day after Russian drones struck a shopping center in the city of KryvyiRih in central Ukraine on Friday.�"AP