On 27 June 2022, the Russian Armed Forces fired two

Kh-22 The Kh-22 (russian: Х-22; AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship missile developed by MKB Raduga in the Soviet Union. It was designed for use against aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a conventional or nuclear wa ...

anti-ship missiles into central

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; uk, Кременчу́к, Kremenchuk ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnipro River. The city serves as the administrative center of the Kremenchuk Raion (district) in Poltava Oblast (pr ...

Poltava Oblast Poltava Oblast ( uk, Полта́вська о́бласть, translit=Poltavska oblast; also referred to as Poltavshchyna – uk, Полта́вщина, literally 'Poltava Country') is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The administrative ...

, hitting the Amstor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

and the Kredmash road machinery plant. A fire broke out and the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 56.

Russian media Television, magazines, and newspapers have all been operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Even though the Constitution of Russia guarantees freedom ...

and officials carried conflicting stories about the attack.

Background

The explosion at the Amstor shopping center was the fifth attack on

since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. The attack on 27 June caused the largest number of casualties. The previous attacks had taken place on 2 and 24 April, 12 May and 18 June. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kremenchuk was an industrial city of about 217,000 inhabitants and the location of the country's largest

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

, located some from the mall. The shopping mall that was struck, located in the city center, covered an area of about .

Attack

According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the attack was carried out by

anti-ship missiles launched from Russian

Tu-22M3 The Tupolev Tu-22M (russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. According to some s ...

strategic bombers that took off from the

Shaykovka Shaykovka (russian: Шайковка; State airfields index: ЬУБЙ), also given variously as Kirov Shaykovka, Anisovo Gorod, Anisovo Gorodishche, Shaykovo, Shajkovka, Gorodische, Chaikovka, is an airbase of the Russian Air Force in Kaluga Oblas ...

air base in the

Kaluga region Kaluga Oblast (russian: Калу́жская о́бласть, translit=Kaluzhskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Kaluga. The 2021 Russian Census found a population of 1,069,904. G ...

. The missiles were launched over the territory of the Kursk region. According to Ukrainian media, they belong to the 52nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment, of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, commanded by Colonel Oleg Timoshin. Ukrainian Interior Minister

Denys Monastyrsky Denys Anatoliiovych Monastyrsky ( uk, Денис Анатолійович Монастирський; born 12 June 1980) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician who has been Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs since 16 July 2021. A second missile struck the Kredmash road machinery plant, located about north of the mall. The Kredmash plant had been involved in the repair of three armoured personnel carriers ( BTR-70s) eight years earlier. Both missiles fell about apart and may have been aimed at the same target, since such distance is within the known limited accuracy of Kh-22 missiles (according to the international security expert Sebastien Roblin, "only half of the shots land within 600 meters of the aiming point"). An employee in the mall told reporters that many felt they were safe at the mall as they were not a place of danger for the Russians and away from front lines. Similar comments were echoed by a shopper who expressed shock that the mall was hit, calling it a safe place with women and children. According to the survivors, an air raid alert sounded several minutes before the strike. Russia's defence ministry later officially admitted responsibility for the attack, saying that it hit a weapons depot in a nearby factory and that the detonation of munitions caused the fire to spread to the "non-functioning" shopping centre. Those claims were found to be false by multiple organizations. On 29 June, the

UK Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence (MOD or MoD) is the department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by His Majesty's Government, and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces. The MOD states that its principal objectives are to ...

said, "There is a realistic possibility the missile strike on the Kremenchuk shopping centre on 27 June 2022 was intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target." It added, "Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive

military necessity Military necessity, along with distinction, and proportionality, are three important principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict. Attacks Military necessity is governed by several constra ...

in striking a target." A possibility is that, as anti-ship missiles have a different

terminal guidance In the field of weaponry, terminal guidance refers to any guidance system that is primarily or solely active during the "terminal phase", just before the weapon impacts its target. The term is generally used in reference to missile guidance system ...

design to land-attack missiles, the missile locked on to the large radar return of the shopping centre's flat metal walls instead of the intended target. That a weapon poorly optimised for the mission was used may be due to Russia depleting its stockpile of more suitable munitions.

Casualties

Dmytro Lunin, Governor of Poltava Oblast, said 20 people were dead, and 56 people were injured. 36 people were reported missing. According to Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

, there were more than 1,000 people inside the mall when the strike occurred.

Investigation

Per reports from independent military experts and researchers with Molfar, a global open sourced intelligence community, the factory and mall were too far apart from one another to cause any fires or explosions. Additional phone messages, which were reportedly from local management of the shopping mall, were found by investigators, which told employees to stay working through air raid alarms. The non-profit online journalism collective

Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 20 ...

used receipts from recent purchases at the mall to prove that the mall had been open prior to the attack.

Reactions

The leaders of the G7 nations described the missile strike as an "abominable attack". "We stand united with Ukraine in mourning the innocent victims", they said in a joint statement. "

Indiscriminate attack In international humanitarian law and international criminal law, an indiscriminate attack is a military attack that fails to distinguish between military objectives and protected (civilian) objects. Indiscriminate attacks strike both military and ...

s on innocent civilians constitute a war crime. Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account." US Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 a ...

called the attack an "atrocity" and said, "The world is horrified by Russia's missile strike today, which hit a crowded Ukrainian shopping mall". British Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

condemned the "cruelty and barbarism" of the attack and conveyed condolences to the civilians affected, also reaffirming support for Ukraine. Ukrainian president

said in his address that the attack targeted the shopping centre intentionally. Ukraine's Foreign Minister,

Dmytro Kuleba Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba ( uk, Дмитро Іванович Кулеба; born 19 April 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, diplomat, and communications specialist, currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also concurrently a member ...

tweeted that "The attack was a disgrace to humanity and that Russia must face consequences in the form of more heavy arms to Ukraine and more sanctions against Russia." Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi stated the attack hit an area that was "100% certain not to have any links to the armed forces." He called the attack a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

, and accused Russia of intentionally shelling a central residential area when there were a lot of people around as an intimidation tactic.

Coverage in Russia

On the day of the attack, Russian television did not report it until the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had happened. Pro-Russian

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

channels have spread multiple conflicting theories about the missile strike, including the claim that the missile was aimed at a car factory near the mall, that the mall was being used as a military equipment warehouse, or as a base of the Territorial Defense Forces, and that the missile strike is a Ukrainian provocation involving the use of "canned bodies". On the day after the attack, Russian authorities and state-controlled media issued a number of contradictory statements about the attack, including claims that the attack was "fake" and that the Ukrainians had bombed the mall themselves. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman

Igor Konashenkov Lieutenant General Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov (russian: Игорь Евгеньевич Конашенков; born 15 May 1966) is a Russian military officer serving as the chief spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federa ...

said that " Russian Aerospace Forces delivered a strike by air-launched high-precision weapons against hangars of weapons and ammunition from the United States and European countries in the area of the Kremenchuk road machinery factory" He also said: "The detonation of the munitions for western weaponry in storage led to a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre next to the factory." These statements have been debunked by the BBC and other media.

Aftermath

A memorial to those who died in the attack and were wounded was quickly set up near the ruins of the buildings. Residents left items such as lit candles and flowers at the memorial, while others prayed or waited to hear about those still missing from the attack. A three-day period of official mourning was declared in the city.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Modern history, Russia, Ukraine, War 2020s building bombings 21st-century mass murder in Ukraine June 2022 events in Ukraine Airstrikes during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Attacks on buildings and structures in 2022 Attacks on buildings and structures in Ukraine Attacks on shopping malls Building bombings in Europe Mass murder in 2022 War crimes during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Shopping mall attack History of Poltava Oblast Russian war crimes in Ukraine June 2022 crimes in Europe Airstrikes conducted by Russia