The Kremlin’s forces wanted to ‘kill as many people’ as possible, Volodymyr Zelensky said during the video
By. Verity Bowman. 29 June 2022 •
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia “deliberately” targetted a shopping centre filled with civilians two days ago that killed at least 18 Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian president shared a video on social media of the moment the missile hit the central town of Kremenchuk, adding that the Kremlin’s forces wanted to “kill as many people” as possible.
In the clip, a missile can be seen soaring through the air before a fiery explosion that throws debris into the air.
The centre was packed with people at the time of the attack and authorities said around 36 people are still missing.
“We have all the evidence of what the Russian military is doing against our people. One such piece of evidence is in the video,” Mr Zelensky said. “Russia will be responsible for this act of state terrorism, as for all others.”
Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles had struck a nearby arms depot storing Western weapons, which exploded, causing the blaze that spread to the nearby mall.
Kyiv said there was no military target in the area.
Despite Mr Zelensky’s claims, the Ministry of Defence said in an update this morning that it was likely the mall was stuck by accident due to a lack of high-precision weapons.
“There is a realistic possibility the missile strike on Kremenchuk shopping centre on 27 June was intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target,” a statement posted by the MOD read.
They added that “Russia’s inaccuracy in conducting long-range strikes” has previously “resulted in mass civilian casualty incidents”, including Kramatorsk railway station on April 9.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia traded accusations at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
Mr Zelensky accused Russia of being a “terrorist state”, prompting Russia to charge that he was using a Security Council address as a “remote PR campaign” to solicit more Western weapons.
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians in a war that has killed thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
Comment from reader Alex Hawthorne:
“This is proof, if any were needed, that Putin is more than a criminal dictator, he’s an insane mass murderer who delights in death, with an army of ghouls to do his dirty-work. Is this what the ordinary people of Russia want?, I somehow doubt it, but it’s up to them to do something and stop Putin’s carnage.”
A. Troll writes:
“This is photoshopped. CCTV catching missiles doing 1500km per hour ? mmmm.
And whats this about the shopping centre being closed for months on Google maps ? Are we being fed lies ALL the time now ? Are newspapers just propeganda for the state ?”
This scum calls itself “Steve Graham.” The spelling error demonstrates that this dogshagger is working out of the SP troll farm.
All trolls are terrorists. All putler-grovellers are terrorists.
Despite everything, I still maintain some contacts inside RuSSia. One of them just assured me that “I don’t know anyone who supports Putin. We all hate the war.”
Unfortunately, until putinaziism has been extirpated, we won’t know the true extent of support for putler. My guess is anything from 45% to 75%.
A CCTV can record amazing things, as long as it’s not the cheapest piece of junk and the FPS setting is high enough.
At last we know the truth: it was a premeditated mass murder of innocents; part of an openly declared genocide against Ukrainians.