The strike in Kryvyi Rih wounded 130 people, while nine remained missing as rescue crews searched the damaged shopping center.
KRYVYI RIH, UKRAINE — A Russian drone attack on a shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 16 people and wounded 130, regional officials said, as rescuers continued searching Saturday for nine people still listed as missing.
The Aug. 21 attack struck a busy civilian shopping complex in the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Officials said children were among those wounded and missing. The assault came in two waves, according to Ukrainian authorities, with Zelenskyy saying a second Russian drone struck the shopping center about 30 minutes after the first as emergency crews were responding. Russia did not immediately provide an account addressing the Ukrainian claim that rescuers were deliberately targeted.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said early Saturday that the death toll had risen to 16. Nine people were preliminarily considered missing, including two children, while crews continued clearing rubble at the site. Authorities said 130 people were injured. Reports from Ukrainian officials differed slightly on the number of children among the wounded, putting the figure at more than 20.
Zelenskyy described the attack as a deliberate “double-tap” strike, a term used for an attack in which a second strike follows an initial one after rescuers or other responders arrive. He called the assault an act of terrorism and said Ukraine would respond. His assertion that emergency services were intentionally targeted could not be independently confirmed from the available official information.
The fire caused by the attack spread across about 9,000 square meters, or roughly 97,000 square feet, before firefighters extinguished it, Zelenskyy said Saturday. Rescue teams continued working through debris after the fire was brought under control. Images from the scene showed major damage to the shopping complex, smoke over the area and emergency personnel working around the wreckage.
The Kryvyi Rih strike was part of a deadly series of Russian attacks across Ukraine on Friday. Authorities said separate attacks in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions killed additional civilians. In Mykolaiv, four people, including three children, were killed in a Russian drone attack, Ukrainian officials said. Two women were killed in an attack in the Kharkiv region, according to regional authorities.
The mall attack followed another major Russian assault on Kyiv by about a day. Russian missiles and drones struck the Ukrainian capital and surrounding areas, killing civilians and damaging buildings and infrastructure. Large-scale aerial attacks have intensified during the summer as the war approaches four and a half years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kryvyi Rih, a major industrial city in the Dnipropetrovsk region, has repeatedly been hit during the war. One of the city’s deadliest recent attacks came in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed. The latest strike again placed the city at the center of concerns about civilian casualties from long-range Russian attacks far from much of the active ground fighting.
Russia and Ukraine have also sharply increased long-range attacks beyond the battlefield. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities, military sites and logistics infrastructure with domestically produced drones, saying the strikes are intended to weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war. Russian regional authorities reported new Ukrainian drone attacks Saturday, while Russia continued missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian territory.
Rescue operations at the Kryvyi Rih shopping center remained underway Saturday as authorities worked to account for the missing and treat the wounded. The confirmed death toll stood at 16, but officials cautioned through their continuing search efforts that the human toll was not yet fully known.
Author note: Last updated August 22, 2026.