At least four dead and one injured after a Russian bombing of a shopping mall in Kiev

A Russian bombardment has left at least four people dead and one injured in an attack on a shopping mall located in the Podilskyi district of Kiev, as reported on Monday by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

In addition to the damage to people and the shopping center, several dozen vehicles were also affected in an adjacent car park, after Russian troops launched an attack on the area, Kiev emergency services explained in a statement.

A total of 63 firefighters and 11 units are working on extinguishing the flames, which would have reached the third and fourth floors of the mall, as explained by the Main Directorate of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service in Kiev in a statement.

“As a result of the enemy bombardment, a fire broke out in the parking lot and in the shopping center (...) The nearest fire and rescue units arrived at the scene immediately. Upon their arrival, the fighters established that as a result of the bombing (...) that four people were killed and one was injured”, they explained.

Around 2 a.m. local time, the firefighters began the work of extinguishing the fire, which has spread over a total area of 1,500 square meters, according to the letter.

The mayor of Kiev, Vitaliy Klitschko, announced late on Sunday of several explosions in the Podilskyi district of the Ukrainian capital.

“Rescuers are extinguishing a big fire in one of the shopping centers in the Podilskyi district. All services (rescue, doctors, police) work on site,” Klitschko said on his Telegram channel.

Earlier, one person was killed after the explosions in the Podilskyi district of Kiev, according to the mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko, late on Sunday.

The explosions affected the Podil neighborhood of the Ukrainian capital, including residential and commercial areas, Klitschko said. The Podil district is part of the larger Podilskyi district of the city.

The explosions hit “some houses and on the territory of one of the shopping centers”. Rescuers, paramedics and police are already on the scene,” Klitschko said via Telegram.

Also via Telegram, Klitschko said that lifeguards are extinguishing a large fire in one of the shopping centers in the Podilskyi district of the capital.

Attacks on civilians

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky denounced a new “act of terror” following the bombing of a school in Mariupol.

The bombings, in particular on the besieged port city of Mariupol (southeast), whose streets are lined with corpses according to witnesses, occur at a time of difficult negotiations, although Turkey said on Sunday that the parties were “close to an agreement”.

“The building has been destroyed and people are still under the rubble,” said the city council. To inflict “something like that on a peaceful city (...) is an act of terror,” Zelenski said, denouncing a “war crime”.

The Greek Consul General in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, the last remaining European diplomat, said on his return to Athens that the besieged city “will add to the list of cities in the world completely destroyed by war, such as Guernica, Stalingrad, Grozny or Aleppo.”

(With information from Europa Press)

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