Russia-Ukraine war: Missiles strike shopping centre, many feared dead

Western nations on Monday pledged unwavering support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, including more sanctions on Moscow and air-defence systems, as Russian forces closed in on the last big city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk province.

A Russian missile struck a crowded shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, southeast of Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, and an aide said at least two people had been killed.

Zelenskiy said more than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre at the time of the attack. He gave no details of casualties but said: “It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.”

“It's useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.

Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000 before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, lies on the Dnipro river in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine's biggest oil refinery.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies, meeting at a German alpine resort, said they would keep sanctions on Russia for as long as necessary and intensify international pressure on President Vladimir Putin's government and its ally Belarus.

“Imagine if we allowed Putin to get away with the violent acquisition of huge chunks of another country, sovereign, independent territory,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC.

“The lessons for that would be absolutely chilling. The point I would make to people is I think that sometimes the price of freedom is worth paying.”

After months of teetering on the edge of default, Russia is now just hours away from a dramatic moment in the financial battle that the US and others have waged against the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.

A grace period on about $100 million of missed bond payments – blocked because of wide-ranging sanctions –ends.

Issues on the opening-day agenda include inflation and the threat of recession, climate change, infrastructure and investment and foreign and security policy, while a number of bilateral meetings took place, including between German Chancellor and summit host Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden.

US President Joe Biden on Monday raised the tariff rate on certain Russian imports to 35 per cent as a result of suspending Russia’s “most favored nation” trading status over its war in Ukraine, according to a proclamation issued by the White House.

The higher 35 per cent duty applies to imports of “certain other products of the Russian Federation, the importation of which has not already been prohibited,” the proclamation said.

Biden is set to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Ukraine. Group of Seven leaders are meeting in the Bavarian Alps and committed to supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion “for as long as it takes.” 

NASAMS are an advanced medium to long range surface-to-air missile defense system. Ukraine is suffering from missile attacks and can only strike down a fraction of incoming missiles. The problem remains how quickly Kyiv can get them, how many will come and how long will it take to train people to use them.