On Monday, a Russian rocket hit a shopping center in central Ukraine, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 40. According to the governor of the Poltava region Dmitry Lunin, the balance may worsen.

A Russian rocket hit a shopping center, killing 10 people in Ukraine – Photo: STR Press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations / AFP

“Ten dead and more than 40 injured. This is the current situation in Kremenchug due to rocket fire,” Dmitry Lunin said.

“The occupiers fired a rocket at the shopping center, where there were more than a thousand civilians. The shopping center is on fire, rescuers are fighting the fire. The number of victims is unimaginable,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky wrote earlier on Facebook.

The message came along with a video showing a burning mall with large plumes of smoke and fire trucks.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the mall was attacked by X-22 missiles fired from Tu-22 long-range bombers from the Kursk region of Russia.

“A rocket fired in Kremenchuk hit a very busy place that has nothing to do with hostilities,” the mayor of the city, Vitaliy Maletsky, which had 220,000 inhabitants before the war, wrote on Facebook.

“There are dead and wounded. Details will come later,” he added.

The region’s governor, Dmitry Lunin, condemned a “war crime” and a “crime against humanity” as well as “an outright and cynical act of terror against civilians.”