“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts.” That was Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reaction on Friday, August 21, 2026, after Russian drones hit the biggest shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, the city he calls his hometown.
The Associated Press, citing local authorities, reported 14 dead. Oleksandr Vilkul, who heads the city administration, said 121 people were injured, 22 of them children, and that the rescue operation was still going.
Two waves, minutes apart
Zelenskyy called it a double-tap strike. One wave of drones hit the area, then a second came in as rescue workers responded. A later account in The Guardian put the gap at about half an hour, with the second drone smashing into the roof. Zelenskyy wrote that the repeat strike was “targeting the emergency responders”.
Later in the day he gave a video address and said Ukraine would respond. He did not say how. He also spoke by phone with UN chief Antonio Guterres about the strikes and the civilian casualties.
The toll
Ukrinform quoted Oleksandr Hanzha, who heads the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, on Telegram: 29 of the injured were in serious condition, five of them children. Vilkul, who leads the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, said eight patients were in surgery, one a child. A 14-year-old girl was moved to Dnipro for treatment. “There are people who are missing and cannot be reached,” he said.
The figures kept moving. Emergency services first reported 15 dead and 130 wounded, according to The Guardian, and Hanzha later raised the death toll to 16.
Zelenskyy called the strike “cynical and despicable”. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas labeled it “terror by design” and said she would push for the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war.
A city hit before
Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city about 60km (37 miles) from the front line, has been struck repeatedly since the invasion. One of the deadliest attacks came in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed.
Friday’s strike followed by 24 hours a Russian assault on Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones that killed at least 16 people, the AP reported. It said Moscow’s forces have stepped up ballistic missile attacks on the capital in recent months, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, the only weapon it has that can shoot those missiles down.
Sources
- Russian drones kill 14 people at a shopping mall in a central Ukrainian city, officials say
- Death toll from Russian drone strike on Kryvyi Rih shopping center rises to 14, 121 injured
- Attack on Ukraine shopping centre that killed 16 is 'terror by design', says EU foreign policy chief
