New Russian attacks leave two dead and many missing in Ukraine, while death toll at shopping center hit the previous day rises to 16

Two people were killed and nine others remain missing following new Russian airstrikes, while the death toll from the double-drone strike on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih a day earlier has risen to 16.

Local authorities said one of the victims was recorded in the capital, Kyiv, where a fire broke out at a warehouse following a ballistic missile alert. The other victim was reported in Zaporizhzhia during a drone attack in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that its forces had carried out massive strikes targeting warehouses and transport infrastructure.

Saturday’s attacks came just one day after the deadly double-drone strike on a crowded shopping center in Kryvyi Rih. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strongly condemned what he called an “absolutely cynical and despicable attack.”

According to Zelensky, the attack on his hometown took place in two stages, with the second wave targeting rescue teams responding after the first strike.

About 130 people were injured in the attack on the shopping center, including 23 children. Authorities warned that there could still be bodies under the rubble.

Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, said early Saturday that the death toll had risen to 16 after another body was found beneath the debris. According to him, nine people, including two children, remain missing.

Earlier, authorities had said that 29 of the 130 injured people were in critical condition, raising fears that the toll could increase further. To speed up the search, rescue teams from four other regions of Ukraine were sent to the area.

Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, said Russian drones had been flying at extremely low altitudes and called the attackers “animals.” He added that some of the missing people were not answering phone calls.

In Kyiv, the military administration reported that the fire at a warehouse in the Darnytskyi district broke out in the early hours of Saturday. “According to preliminary information, unfortunately, we have one person dead and several injured,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, in Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone killed a man and injured four other people, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration.

In the south of the country, in the Mykolaiv region, four people, including three children, were killed in separate Russian attacks on Friday. Two others were killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region, local officials confirmed.

A day earlier, on Thursday, another massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv left 17 people dead and more than 40 injured.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said on Friday that it had struck an oil refinery and a military airfield on Russian territory. Kyiv has stepped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy infrastructure and warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, viewing these as legitimate targets that help finance the war.