A Russian drone attack on a shopping center in central Ukraine killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 130 others on Friday. Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported that nine people, including two children, remain missing and are believed to be under the rubble in Kryvyi Rih. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a second drone struck the site 30 minutes after the first, which he described as a deliberate attempt to target emergency responders.
Additional strikes across Ukraine resulted in further casualties on Saturday morning. Authorities reported one person killed in a warehouse fire in Kyiv following a ballistic missile strike and another killed during a drone strike in Zaporizhzhia. Earlier on Friday, two women were killed in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine's air force stated it intercepted or suppressed 107 of 135 drones launched by Russia overnight, while Moscow's Defense Ministry reported intercepting 325 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions and Crimea.
In response to the aerial activity, Ukraine targeted Russian energy and military infrastructure. President Zelensky stated that Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Perm, located more than 1,600 kilometers from the border, and the Marinovka military airfield in the Volgograd region. Local officials in Russia's Belgorod region also reported one death and four injuries following a Ukrainian drone strike on a car near the village of Razumnoye.
The strikes on energy infrastructure, such as the Lukoil-operated refinery in Perm and the Novokuybyshevsk refinery in Samara, could influence regional fuel availability and prices. Ukrainian officials have noted that Moscow is exploiting a shortage of air defense systems, specifically Patriot interceptors, to intensify ballistic missile strikes. This persistent threat to civilian infrastructure has led European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to propose what she termed the most far-reaching sanctions against Russia since the conflict began.
A formal decision on these sanctions is expected when EU ministers meet in Ireland next month. Meanwhile, rescue operations continue in Kryvyi Rih as emergency teams attempt to locate the nine individuals missing in the shopping center debris. President Zelensky has stated that Ukraine will provide a direct response to the mall attack, suggesting a continuation of long-range drone strikes against Russian industrial and military targets.