Attacking Shopping Malls In Kyiv, Russian Ministry Of Defense: Rocket Ammunition Storage Base

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire in a shopping center hit by the Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/dsns.gov.ua/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia said on Monday it had attacked a Kyiv, Ukrainian shopping center with a high-precision long-range weapon, as it is being used as a rocket depot and reloading station by Ukrainian forces.

A Kyiv shopping center was attacked on Sunday night, killing at least eight people, destroying nearby buildings and leaving a smoky pile of rubble, as well as the wreckage of burning cars scattered over several hundred meters.

"The area near the shopping center is used as a large base for storing rocket ammunition and for reloading some rocket launchers," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters, cited from Reuters, March 22.

"High-precision long-range weapons on the night of March 21 destroyed Ukrainian batteries of multiple rocket launchers, as well as an ammunition depot in a non-functioning shopping mall," he said.

Major General Konashenkov showed a video which he said showed Ukraine had used shopping malls as weapons bases and reloading stations.

Rescue workers around the location of a shopping center hit by the Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/dsns.gov.ua/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

As previously reported, an attack hit a shopping center in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday night, killing at least eight people, destroying nearby buildings, and leaving piles of smoky rubble and the wreckage of burning cars scattered over several hundred meters.

As dawn broke on Monday, firefighters extinguished a small fire around a smoldering carcass from a building in a parking lot, a shopping center in the city's Podil district, and searched for possible survivors.

The force of the explosion obliterated a structure in a shopping center parking lot and gutted an adjacent 10-story building, shattering windows in a residential tower block in the vicinity.

"The Russians opened fire on our shopping center. The mall and residential buildings around it have suffered severe damage," said Mykola Medinskiy, an army chaplain.

He added that there were no strategic military objects in the area. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the comments. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Six bodies lay on the pavement as emergency services combed through the rubble, where artillery fire was heard in the distance. Meanwhile, Ukraine's attorney general said at least eight people had died.

It is known that Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, has left thousands of people dead in the fighting and about 10 million displaced, including nearly 3.5 million who fled abroad, mostly to European neighbors such as Poland.