Russian drone hits Pavlohrad mall, killing five and wounding 67

Five people were killed and 67 wounded, including eight children, when a Russian drone struck a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said the daylight attack hit shops and vehicles “when the streets were full of people”.

Where did the drone strike hit?

Pavlohrad is a logistics hub near the central city of Dnipro and has been heavily attacked before: two people were killed in a strike on warehouses there last month. Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said in a Telegram post that eight of the 67 injured are children. Images released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine showed firefighters directing water hoses at burning vehicles amid clouds of smoke on a street in the city.

What did Ukraine’s leaders say?

President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and said: “The Russians used drones to kill people who were simply standing near shopping centres.” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as a “tactic of coercion”, adding: “Russia believes that relentless attacks on civilians can exhaust Ukrainians and force Ukraine into concession.”

Which other shopping centres have been hit?

Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone attack on a mall in Sumy on Wednesday killed two people and wounded 20, and that Russian aerial bombing in Sumy on Thursday injured eight people, including three children. In Zaporizhzhia, a shopping mall was almost completely destroyed on Monday, its owners reported; it was closed at the time and there were no immediate reports of casualties. Ukrainian officials say Russian drones killed at least 16 people and injured 130 in Kryvyi Rih last month. Malls in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine have also come under attack, including a reported Ukrainian drone attack on a mall in the port city of Mariupol on Monday and an attack on Donetsk last month.

What has Russia reported?

Russian officials said Ukrainian seaborne drones attacked the shoreline at Sochi overnight on Wednesday, wounding 28 people, two of them children. Russian officials also reported on Thursday that a Ukrainian drone strike on the town of Novy Oskol in Belgorod Region killed one person and wounded six others; that an attack on a car in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday killed a 15-year-old girl and injured a six-year-old child and two women; and that an attack on a civilian lorry in the same region killed a man.

Are peace talks making progress?

A full-scale war has been raging between Russia and Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion more than four and a half years ago. A new peacemaking effort by envoys sent by US President Donald Trump at the weekend, who has offered $5,000 payments to US adults if Republicans keep control of Congress, appears to have yielded few concrete results after talks in Moscow with Putin and in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Frequently asked questions

How many people were killed in the Russian drone attack on Pavlohrad?

Ukrainian officials say five people were killed and 67 wounded, including eight children, when a Russian drone hit a shopping mall in Pavlohrad on Thursday. The city is in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

What did Volodymyr Zelensky say about the Pavlohrad strike?

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, offered condolences to the families of those killed and said: “The Russians used drones to kill people who were simply standing near shopping centres.”

Which other Ukrainian cities have been hit in strikes on shopping centres?

Ukrainian officials reported a drone attack on a mall in Sumy on Wednesday that killed two people and wounded 20, and a mall in Zaporizhzhia was almost completely destroyed on Monday. Ukrainian officials say a strike in Kryvyi Rih last month killed at least 16 people and injured 130.

What has Russia said about Ukrainian attacks?

Russian officials said Ukrainian seaborne drones attacked the shoreline at Sochi overnight on Wednesday, wounding 28 people, two of them children, and reported further deaths and injuries from Ukrainian strikes in Belgorod Region and Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia.

With reporting from BBC News.

Stock image, not from the events described. Santa Monica San Simon Pampanga 03 — Obandoeño12345 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)