Russian missile strike death toll rises to 18, rescue operation continues

The number of people who died in the Russian missile strike has reached 18 as a Kh-22 (Russian

The number of people who died in the Russian missile strike has reached 18 as a Kh-22 (Russian: X-22) missile weighing nearly 2,000 pounds struck a shopping centre in the industrial city of Kremenchuk on Monday. Another 36 people are missing as the search continues, CNN reported.

Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava region military administration said that rescuers continue to work round the clock as the dismantling of damaged building structures is ongoing with the help of heavy engineering equipment and small machines. "25 people were admitted to intensive care at the hospital in Kremenchuk," CNN quoted Lunin, as saying.

Ukrainian officials said that as many as 1,000 people could have been inside the building at the time of the strike, though the exact number was not clear. The strike came after Russia, in a sudden escalation, fired more than 65 missiles at Ukraine over the weekend. The strike had been carried out by a Russian X-22 missile weighing nearly 2,000 pounds and was fired from Russia's Kursk region, near the border.

During the ongoing G7 summit that is taking place in Germany, the world leaders called the mall attack a "war crime" in a statement Monday night. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine dedicated most of his nightly address on Monday to the strike, calling it "one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history."

Kremenchuk had a population of almost 220,000 people before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine.

Nearly 14 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to United Nations (UN) estimates and most of those displaced are women and children. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)