The Kremlin insists the only way to end the war is to capitulate Ukraine
The death toll after Monday’s rocket attack on a shopping center in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, located in the Poltava region, southeast of Kiev, has risen to 20 dead and 59 injured, according to Interior Minister Denis Monastirski. 21 were also missing.
However, according to information from the deputy director of the presidency, Kirilo Timoshenko, “more than 40 reports of missing persons have been filed.” After the immense fire was extinguished, the work of clearing debris in search of corpses or captured victims continues with the participation of nearly 4,500 members of the rescue teams.
Monastirski pointed out that “most of the bodies of those butchered in the Amstor shopping center have not yet been identified because they are practically charred.” Another missile hit the Kredmash machine factory, completely destroying its facilities, according to Ukrainian authorities. The director assures that no military vehicles have been produced since 1989, only cars for civilian use.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said Monday through his Telegram account that more than a thousand people were in the mall at the time of the explosion, as evidenced by the numerous images broadcast by social networks. , including those he published himself. He called what happened “one of the most daring terrorist acts in European history.”
The Russian defense ministry said in a statement yesterday that the missile attack on Kremenchuk was aimed at destroying ammunition “hangars”. The mall was not operational and accidentally caught fire.
In the city of Kremenchuk, Russian aerospace forces launched an attack on Monday with precision weapons fired from the air on hangars that had stored weapons and ammunition received from the United States and European countries destined for the grouping of Ukrainian troops in Donbass. , he added.
“The explosion of the stored ammunition caused a fire in a disused shopping center located near the site of the destroyed factory,” the statement from the military department reads. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov estimates that the Defense Ministry’s “exhaustive” statements “completely deny” the version” of events given by Kiev.
Ukrainian military aviation believes two Soviet-made Kh-22 (X-22) missiles were fired at the city of Kremenchuk from a Tu-22M3 bomber while flying over Russia’s Kursk region, bordering Ukraine. One of the rockets hit the mall and the other the nearby machine shop. The unit from which the Russian planes took off is located in Shaikovka (Kaluga region), according to the same source.
The international community’s condemnation for what happened in Kremenchuk is universal and unanimous. “This is another heinous act in a series of attacks on civilian infrastructure by Russian forces. The continued bombing of civilians is reprehensible, totally unacceptable and constitutes a war crime,” the office of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said in a statement. European Council President Charles Michel, for his part, warned at the G7 meeting in Bavaria that the Russian intimidation attempts “will not work” and described the attack as “appalling and indiscriminate”.
Precisely the G7 leaders have described the Kremenchuk massacre in a joint statement as a “war crime” and announced more sanctions against Moscow. The UN also joins the cries of rejection against Russia. The spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, has called the “new wave” of airstrikes and bombings that Ukraine has suffered “deplorable”. On Sunday, another rocket attack left one dead and several injured in a residential building in the Ukrainian capital.
But in Russia there doesn’t seem to be the slightest intention to stop the massacre. Peskov has reiterated, in response to a question about when the war will end, that Ukraine could end the conflict “on the same day.” It is enough that the nationalist units are ordered to lay down their arms, including the surrender of the Ukrainian army. After that, the conditions set by Russia would be applied,” which, according to Moscow negotiators, include capitulation and recognition of Crimea as Russian and Donbas as independent entities weeks ago. Ukraine was also likely to lose Kherson and much of Zaporizhzhya. “Then everything would end in one day,” the presidential spokesman added.
Source: La Verdad
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