Russian double-tap drone strike kills 15 at Ukrainian shopping centre

The shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih was busy when the first drone hit. Then came the second one—this time aimed at the rescue workers who had rushed to pull people from the wreckage. At least 15 people died in what Ukrainian officials are calling a deliberate two-stage attack, a tactic designed to maximize casualties among both civilians and first responders. Another 130 were wounded, among them 23 children. More remain unaccounted for, trapped somewhere in the rubble of the city's largest mall.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is from Kryvyi Rih, called the daytime strike "absolutely cynical and despicable." The attack unfolded in two distinct waves, he said—the second drone arriving after emergency crews had already begun their work. BBC-verified footage shows the second strike hitting the building as it burned, a tactic known as a double-tap that has become grimly familiar in this war. Russia's military offered no statement about the operation.

By Friday evening, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed 15 deaths, including two people who died later in hospital. Among the injured, 29 were in serious condition. Hanzha warned that the toll would likely climb. Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions were being rushed to the scene to search through the debris. The city's mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, described the Russian operators as "animals" and noted that the drones had flown at "extremely low altitudes." He spoke of missing people who were not answering calls—a detail that carries its own weight, the silence of the unaccounted.

This strike came just a day after a major Russian missile and drone assault on Kyiv killed 17 people and wounded more than 40. That attack struck apartment blocks, warehouses, a children's hospital, and a school. The pattern is consistent: Russia targeting civilian infrastructure and the people who depend on it.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military reported carrying out strikes of its own on Friday—hitting an oil refinery and a military airfield deep inside Russian territory. In recent months, Kyiv has intensified attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and on warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer. Ukraine's government describes these targets as legitimate because they help finance the war effort. The conflict itself began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and Moscow now controls roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the southeast. The shopping centre attack is one moment in a much longer campaign, but it is a moment that will be counted in the dead and the missing, in the children injured, in the families searching through rubble for people who may not be found.