KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones attacked a shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more, authorities said. The attacks on the shopping center, in addition to two separate Russian attacks in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, left a total of 21 people dead across Ukraine on Friday, authorities said. Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described the attack as a double-tap attack, in which an initial wave of drones hit the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded. “Attacks like these are nothing short of terrorist acts,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. In a video speech several hours later, he said Ukraine would respond to the mall attack. Oleksandr Hanzha, who heads the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said Friday afternoon that the attack on the shopping center killed at least 15 people and wounded 130, including 23 children. Kryvyi Rih has been attacked several times during the more than four-year war, with one of the deadliest occurring in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed. Russia exploits shortage of defensive systems in Ukraine Earlier on Friday, a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed two women, aged 73 and 66, and wounded two others, regional chief Oleh Syniehubov said. Another Russian attack on Friday night killed four people, including three children, in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, emergency services said. Ukraine shot down or suppressed 107 of the 135 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to a statement from the Ukrainian air force on Telegram. Friday’s attacks came just 24 hours after Russia attacked the capital, kyiv, with dozens of missiles and drones in an overnight airstrike that killed 16 people. Large-scale Russian attacks have become commonplace this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine died in the city two days earlier. The United Nations said last week that kyiv was one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured. Moscow’s forces have recently stepped up their ballistic missile attacks on kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of American-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the only weapon in its arsenal capable of shooting down the missiles. Ukrainian drones attacked Russian oil refinery A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and injured four others when a car was hit on Friday in Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said, adding that two of the injured were in serious condition. The Marinovka military airfield in Russia’s Volgograd region was also attacked, he said. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. Russian online news outlet Astra reported that the Ukrainian drone had set fire to an oil refinery operated by Lukoil in Perm. Local officials said damage was reported at an unidentified “industrial facility.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 325 Ukrainian drones overnight in 15 Russian regions, as well as in Crimea. The peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Later on Friday, it said its defenses shot down another 211 drones. Long-range attacks between Russia and Ukraine have intensified as troops continually fail to make significant progress on the battlefield, analysts say. Troop movements along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine are severely restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots that threaten infantry and vehicles. Last year, Ukraine designed and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes inside Russia, attracting the attention of governments and defense manufacturers around the world. Officials in kyiv aim to make the Russian public feel the consequences of the war and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace deal. So far, Putin has shown no sign that he intends to stop the invasion.___Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
