Russian Drone Strikes Hit Kryvyi Rih Mall, Kill at Least Five, Zelensky Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Russian attack drones struck a shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in two waves, killing at least five people and injuring at least 52 others, including six children.

In a post on his official Telegram channel at about 15:08 UTC, Zelensky said the first drone strike hit the mall and caused a fire. About 30 minutes later, he said, a second strike hit rescue workers who had arrived at the scene. Zelensky said the wounded were receiving medical care.

The casualty figures were preliminary and could change as emergency crews continued their work. Earlier reports from local Ukrainian outlets had listed lower tolls, including two dead and 15 injured, indicating that the number of casualties was still being updated in the immediate aftermath.

Kryvyi Rih, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, is a major industrial city and Zelensky’s hometown. It has been repeatedly targeted during the war. Recent attacks there have included a major strike on a retail outlet on July 26 and strikes on industrial facilities in mid-August.

Zelensky described the attack as a strike on an ordinary shopping center and said the drones hit “in two waves,” with the second impact targeting emergency responders after the initial blast and fire. Ukrainian officials have previously reported similar follow-up strikes elsewhere, sometimes described by rights groups and legal analysts as “double-tap” attacks, but Zelensky’s statement on Friday focused on the sequence of events and the rising casualty toll.

Local media and social media accounts circulated video said to show the second strike, but those images had not been independently verified at the time of reporting.