Russian Drones Hit Shopping Mall in Zelensky's Hometown Twice, Killing 16, Wounding 130

Russian drones slammed into a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, on Friday afternoon, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 130, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration.

Hanzha said 22 to 23 children were among the wounded, and 29 people, including five children, were in serious condition. A 14-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury was transferred to a regional children's hospital, according to Kyiv Post.

By early Saturday, nine people, including two children, remained missing, Hanzha said. Rescue crews worked through the night pulling bodies from the rubble, according to Kyiv Post, which reported that the confirmed death toll rose to 16 after crews recovered the body of a woman after midnight.

Zelensky described the strike as a deliberate double-tap attack. A first wave of drones hit the mall, followed roughly 30 minutes later by a second drone strike timed to hit as emergency responders arrived on scene, he said. "Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts," Zelensky wrote on Telegram, calling for "real pressure on the aggressor" from the international community.

"An absolutely cynical and despicable strike was carried out by the Russians against an ordinary shopping center in Kryvyi Rih," Zelensky said, according to Kyiv Post. He called it "absolute Russian brutality" and vowed Ukraine "will definitely respond."

An employee at the mall, identified only as Yuliana, told RFE/RL that parts of the ceiling collapsed in a parking garage where shoppers and staff had taken shelter during the air raid alert. "There was smoke. Everyone was shouting," she said.

Friday's mall strike was part of a broader wave of Russian attacks that day. CBS News reported that separate strikes in Ukraine's Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions brought the day's nationwide death toll to 21. In Kharkiv, a drone attack killed two women, ages 73 and 66, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. In Mykolaiv, an evening strike killed four people, including three children, emergency services said.

Ukraine's air force said it shot down or suppressed 107 of 135 Russian drones launched overnight, according to a Telegram statement cited by CBS News. The mall strike came less than 24 hours after Russia hit Kyiv with a wave of missiles and drones that killed 16 people, and follows a summer of large-scale strikes: 17 dead in a Kyiv-region attack two weeks earlier, nine dead in the city two days before that. The United Nations said July was one of the deadliest months for Kyiv civilians since the war's early phase, with at least 54 killed and 202 injured, CBS News reported.

Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city about 37 miles from the front line, has been struck repeatedly during the war. One of the deadliest previous attacks came in April 2025, killing 20 people, including nine children.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, called the mall attack "terror by design" and said Moscow "wants to make Ukrainian cities unliveable," according to CBC. The Independent reported Kallas said she would put forward what she called the most far-reaching Russia sanctions package since the war began when EU foreign ministers meet in Ireland next month.

Ukraine's allies are scheduled to meet Monday as part of the Coalition of the Willing, co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron via video link, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to The New Indian Express. About 10 leaders, including European Council President Antonio Costa, are expected in Kyiv around the country's Aug. 24 independence day, an EU official told the outlet.

Ukraine has continued to strike back. Zelensky said a Ukrainian drone hit an oil refinery in Perm, Russia, roughly 995 miles from the border, and struck the Marinovka military airfield in Russia's Volgograd region, CBS News reported. The Russian outlet Astra said the strike set ablaze a Lukoil-operated refinery. Separately, a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Belgorod region killed one person and wounded four when it hit a car near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said.

Russia has not issued a public response to the mall strike or Zelensky's accusation that it deliberately targeted emergency responders. No independent verification of the drone type has been confirmed, though ZeroHedge reported footage from the scene appeared to show a jet-powered Geran-4 drone, a claim that has not been corroborated by other outlets in this set.

The immediate open question is what "real pressure" and Kallas's promised sanctions package will actually contain when EU foreign ministers convene next month, and whether Ukraine's allies use Monday's Coalition of the Willing meeting to commit new Patriot interceptor deliveries. The one weapon system CBS News noted Ukraine still lacks in sufficient supply is needed to counter Russia's intensified ballistic missile campaign against Kyiv.