G7 slams Russian missile attack on Ukraine mall as ‘war crime’

A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people in what G7 leaders branded ‘a war crime’.

The wreckage of a mall in Kremenchuk, the day after it was hit by a Russian missile strike. Picture: AFP

A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people in what G7 leaders branded “a war crime” as they prepared to step up sanctions on Moscow.

The leaders vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and those responsible would be held to account for Monday’s strike in the city of Kremenchuk, carried out during the shopping mall’s busiest hours.

“Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” they said in a statement condemning the “abominable ­attack” in which at least 59 people were wounded.

Ukraine accused Russia of ­deliberately targeting civilians, with President Volodymyr Zelensky calling it “one of the most ­brazen terrorist acts in European history” in his nightly broadcast posted on Telegram.

“A peaceful town, an ordinary shopping centre – women, children ordinary civilians inside,” said Mr Zelensky, who earlier shared a video of the mall engulfed in flames with dozens of rescuers and a fire truck outside.

“All response groups are working in intense mode,” emergency services chief Sergiy Kruk said. “The work will go on around the clock.”

In a separate attack, Russian rockets killed at least eight civilians as they were out collecting water in the eastern city of Lysychansk, which has become the focus of heavy Russian attacks ­following the fall of its twin city, Severodonetsk last week.

“Our defenders are holding the line, but the Russians are turning the city into rubble … the infrastructure is completely destroyed,” Luhansk region Governor Sergiy Gaiday said on Telegram.

Rescuers sift through the remains of the mall hit by a Russian missile strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. Picture: AFP

After failing to capture Kyiv following their February invasion, Russian troops have focused on seizing a swath of eastern Ukraine, and have been gaining ground.

A strike in Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast, killed four people and wounded 19 others, including four children, on Sunday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking from the G7 gathering in the Bavarian Alps, said the Kremenchuk attack demonstrated Mr Putin’s “depths of cruelty and barbarism”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the world was “horrified”, while UN chief Antonio ­Guterres’s office condemned the strike as “totally deplorable”.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the attack as an “abomination”.

Diplomats said Ukraine had ­requested a Tuesday meeting on the strikes at the UN Security Council, where Russia wields veto power but has not been able to prevent critical talks of the invasion.

But the Kremlin responded with defiance, saying it would stop its attacks as soon as Ukraine ­surrendered. “The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary.”

US President Joe Biden and his peers from the wealthy G7 nations are seeking to tighten the economic screws on Moscow, even as soaring energy and food prices drive up global inflation. “We will continue to provide financial, ­humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G7 said.

Mr Zelensky, addressing the leaders virtually before the attack, had urged them to “intensify sanctions” to help end the war before the bitter winter.

“We will continue to increase pressure on Putin,” summit host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “This war has to come to an end.”

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the missiles attack from their G7 summit in Bavaria. Picture: AFP

The leaders are discussing a price cap on Russian oil imports and sanctions targeting Russia’s defence sector.

But European officials fear difficulty in implementation.

To help bring down surging ­prices, France urged oil-producing nations to raise output in an ­“exceptional manner” and Mr Macron backed a return to the market of crude from Iran and Venezuela, both under US sanctions. On Sunday, the G7 announced plans to stop imports of Russian gold.  Washington plans to send Ukraine sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, meeting a long-standing request from Mr Zelensky.

The summit of the G7 – which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – ended on Tuesday and was immediately followed by a NATO meeting in Spain, where Ukraine is again expected to dominate the agenda.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged alliance leaders to maintain support for Ukraine. “It is ­extremely important that we are ready to continue to provide support because Ukraine now faces a brutality which we haven’t seen in Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

NATO said on Monday it would boost its high-readiness force from 40,000 to 300,000 troops and send more heavy weaponry to its eastern flank, in what Mr Stoltenberg called “the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War”.

Lithuania, a NATO member at the forefront of pressuring Russia, announced it had been targeted by a massive cyberattack.

The Russian hackers’ group Killnet claimed responsibility, saying it was acting in retaliation for restrictions imposed by Lithuania earlier in this month.

Russia last week threatened ­reprisals against the Baltic state for having banned the rail transit of certain goods to the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad. Vilnius said it was simply applying European Union sanctions.

AFP