Africana55 Radio 
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to retaliate after a double-tap drone strike on his hometown killed 16 people.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors in the wreckage of a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, which was hit twice by Russia on Friday.
More than 130 people were wounded in the daytime attack carried out in two waves, with the second strike targeting emergency workers at the scene of the first.
Zelensky called the attacks an “act of barbarism”, claiming the “absolutely cynical and despicable” second strike was a deliberate attempt to target emergency services.
“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” Zelensky said on Telegram, urging the world to hold Russia to account. “We will definitely respond.”
Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said that 22 children were among the wounded and nine people including two children were missing.
“There are 29 people in a serious condition, including five children,” Hanzha said, adding that rescuers were continuing to clear the rubble of the shopping centre.
Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions were deployed to help in the search for survivors.
Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the Russian drones were flying at “extremely low altitudes”, describing the attackers as “animals”.
“There are missing people who are not responding to calls,” the mayor added.
Zelensky renewed his calls for more air-defence support following the strikes. In a post on X (Twitter) he said: “Every day that Ukraine lacks sufficient air defence means casualties that could have been prevented.
“Protecting lives requires daily decisions and effective support from the world, and right now, new supplies of ballistic missile interceptors and other missiles can help.”
European Commission vice-president Kaja Kallas called the attack “terror by design”.
She said in a post on X that the strike showed the “absolute and utter depravity of Moscow’s war”.
“Russia wants to make Ukrainian cities unliveable,” she added. “I am putting forward the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war. The pressure must be intensified until Moscow ends the war.”
Kryvyi Rih in particular has been hit multiple times during the war. One of the deadliest occurred in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed.
Ms Kallas said EU foreign and defence ministers would discuss how to expand support for Ukraine, including air and missile defence, when they meet in less than two weeks in Dublin.
The attack is the latest in a series of high death toll strikes over the summer.
Friday’s attack came just 24 hours after Russia hit Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones in a nighttime assault that also killed 16 people.
The capital has been hit hard repeatedly in recent weeks: 17 people were killed in a strike on Kyiv and its surrounding region just over two weeks ago; and nine died in another attack on the city two days before that. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.
At the same time, Ukraine has shifted the war onto Russian soil through long-range drone strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages across the country.
It has also unsettled the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer.
The Russian online news outlet Astra reported on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone set ablaze an oil refinery in the Samara region. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified “industrial facility” and a logistics center for Ozon, a competitor to Wildberries.