A Russian double-tap drone strike killed at least 15 people and injured over 100, including 23 children, at a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to officials. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said the attack occurred on Friday evening.

Attack Details and Casualty Reports

Videos from the scene showed smoke filling the shopping center as people scrambled to escape, with stores inside catching fire, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council. At least 130 people were wounded, and 29 of them are in serious condition, including a 14-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury and four other children. Emergency crews are still working to clear the rubble, and several people are missing, Vilkul added.

Zelenskyy condemned the attack on social media, calling it an “absolute Russian atrocity” and stating, “They’re just monsters.” He also said Ukraine would respond to the attack.

Broader Pattern of Aerial Attacks

The strike occurred just 24 hours after Russia launched a large-scale attack on Kyiv and its surrounding areas, killing at least 17 people; Earlier on Friday, a Russian drone attack in the Kharkiv region killed two women, aged 73 and 66, and wounded two others. Another attack in Mykolaiv killed four people, including three children, according to regional emergency services.

Ukraine’s air force reported shooting down or suppressing 107 out of 135 Russian drones launched overnight — Large-scale Russian strikes have become more frequent this summer. Two weeks before the Kyiv attack, a Russian strike killed nine people in the city, and another attack two days before that killed 17 people, as the United Nations reported that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.

Moscow has also intensified its ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made missile defense systems, which are the only weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of intercepting these missiles. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on allies to provide more missile interceptors and to impose additional sanctions on Russia’s military-industrial complex, though “Russia must be denied both the ability to produce these means of terror and the ability to use them,” he said.

Historical Context and Regional Impact

Kryvyi Rih has experienced several deadly attacks during the more than 4-year-old war. One of the deadliest occurred in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed. The recent attack marks another grim addition to the city’s history of civilian casualties.

Russian forces have increasingly relied on aerial assaults as the front lines remain largely static, locked in a slow-moving, deadly stalemate. Ukraine’s air defenses are under significant strain, according to reports.