Russian Double-Tap Drones Kill 14 at Ukraine Mall

Two waves, thirty minutes apart

Two Russian drones struck a shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding well over 100, local officials said.

Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Friday evening there were 14 confirmed fatalities and 121 people injured, including 22 children and 29 people in serious condition, the BBC reported. Hanzha said the toll was expected to rise. A number of people were reported trapped in the rubble.

Later updates pushed the count higher. The Associated Press, via CTV News, reported 15 killed. Yahoo News reported 15 dead and 130 injured, including 23 children, citing the regional head. Reuters and CTV had earlier in the day reported at least six dead — a figure that climbed through the afternoon as rescuers worked the site.

The Frank is using the 14 figure attributed to Hanzha because that is the number the naming authority confirmed on the record Friday evening. It is not final.

The second drone hit the responders

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the daytime attack on his home town was carried out in "two waves," with the second strike targeting emergency workers who had arrived at the scene. He called it "absolutely cynical and despicable."

France 24 reported the second drone hit the mall roughly half an hour after the first. Footage verified by the BBC shows the second drone striking the shopping centre while it was already burning.

That pattern — hit a target, wait for rescuers, hit it again — is what militaries and rights monitors call a double-tap.

Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said: "Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts," and urged the world to hold Russia to account, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said earlier in the day the Russian drones were flying at "extremely low altitudes" and described the attackers as "animals." He added: "There are missing people who are not responding to calls."

No word from Moscow

Russia's military has not commented on the strike, the BBC reported. No Russian government response appeared in any of the sources covering the attack Friday.

The wider week

The strike came a day after 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a major Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv, according to the BBC. Blocks of flats and warehouses were hit across the capital; a children's hospital and a school were damaged.

Earlier Friday, Ukraine's military said it carried out strikes on an oil refinery and a military airfield deep inside Russia. Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russian energy facilities in recent months, arguing they are legitimate targets because they finance the war.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and now controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the south-east, the BBC reported.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, France 24, CTV News/Associated Press, Yahoo News, New York Post, Jerusalem Post.