Exhausted firefighters searched yesterday for survivors in the ruins of a Ukrainian shopping center, where, according to the Ukrainian authorities, a Russian missile attack killed at least 18 people and 36 are missing.
At a summit in Germany, leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations announced plans to cap Russian oil prices in a bid to cut off the revenue Moscow is using to finance the war without further exacerbating the global economic crisis.
The G7 is followed by the NATO summit that is being held these days in Spain, where it is expected that the Western military alliance will announce the placing of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on heightened alert and the reform of the strategic framework in order to characterize Moscow as an enemy.
The attack, in the central city of Kremenchuk far from any front line, was condemned by international officials, with French President Emmanuel Macron among those calling it a "war crime".
Ukraine accuses Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian targets, while Russia claims it hit a nearby ammunition depot in Kremenchuk and that the fire spread to a shopping center.
Later last night, the Ukrainian governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region southeast of Kremenchuk announced that another Russian missile attack had been carried out and added that rescuers were searching for people in the city of Dnipro.
The official, Valentin Reznjichenko, said that the railway infrastructure and an industrial company were damaged in the attack, while the fire engulfed the utility company. "Mass enemy attack on Dnipropetrovsk region. Six rockets!!!", he announced on Telegram.
A futile search for survivors
Family members of those missing in the attack on the shopping center in Kremenchuk were waiting yesterday in a hotel near the ruins where rescuers had set up a base. Exhausted firefighters sat on the pavement after trying to extinguish the blaze and searched for survivors, mostly in vain.
Firefighter Oleksandr told Reuters that his team worked all night: "We pulled out five bodies. We didn't find any survivors," he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in "one of the most brazen terrorist attacks in European history."
The Russian Defense Ministry said their missiles hit a warehouse containing Western weapons, which exploded, causing the fire to spread to a nearby shopping mall.
Kiev claims that there are no military targets in that area.
"Russia's goal is for as many Ukrainians as possible to close their eyes forever, for the rest to stop resisting and surrender to slavery," Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president, announced on Twitter. "This is how this terrorist state behaves".
Russia said the mall had been decommissioned and was empty. However, this is denied by the family members of the victims and the missing, as well as dozens of injured people, such as 43-year-old Ludmila Mikailets, who was shopping with her husband when the attack happened.
"It lifted me up in the air and shrapnel hit my body. The whole building was collapsing," she told Reuters at the hospital where she is being held.
Limiting Russian oil prices
G7 leaders said the attack was "heinous". Russian President Vladimir Putin and others will be held responsible, they said in a statement after a three-day summit where the main topic was the war in Ukraine.
Western powers have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, but have so far failed to shut down Moscow's main source of income: earnings from oil and gas exports, which have actually increased following a surge in global prices triggered by the threat of supply disruptions.
At the end of the three-day summit, the G7 leaders announced a new approach - they will leave Russian oil on the market, but will introduce a limit on the price countries can pay for it.
"We invite all countries that share our position to consider joining our action," the statement from the G7 summit states.
However, "The Guardian" writes that at the summit there were disagreements among the leaders about how to reduce the flow of money to the Kremlin from Western consumption of Russian energy sources. Germany, according to the British newspaper, fears that limiting oil or gas prices could lead to Russia completely cutting off energy supplies, which would result in a European industrial collapse. Others, especially the Americans, believe that the plan is feasible.
The United States also imposed new sanctions banning imports of Russian gold and targeting Russia's state-owned defense conglomerate, Rostek, and several banks.
Since the summit activity is now being moved to NATO, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the new strategic concept "will describe in harsh terms the threat that Russia represents and the way in which it has disturbed the peace in Europe".
This represents a departure from the post-Soviet NATO policy, according to which Moscow was characterized as a potential partner.
Satellite images and coordinates of the Pentagon, the White House...
Dmitry Rogozin, the former Russian ambassador to NATO and now the head of the Russian space agency, responded by releasing satellite photos and coordinates of the location where the summit is being held in Madrid, the Pentagon, the White House, and other buildings that house Western state institutions.
"Today, the NATO summit begins in Madrid, where the Western countries will declare Russia the worst enemy," Rogozin announced on the social network. "Roscosmos publishes satellite photos of the location where the summit is held and the centers where decisions are made and support for Ukrainian nationalists is provided. We also publish the coordinates. Just in case," said Rogozin.
Reuters points out that the coordinates of these locations, expressed as degrees of latitude and longitude, are easily accessible.
The attack on Kremenchuk came days after Russia stepped up long-range missile attacks from the front line, including the first strikes on the capital Kiev in recent weeks.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city where Russian troops were repulsed in a counteroffensive in May, authorities said nine people were killed in rocket attacks that hit an apartment building and a school.
Ukraine had another tough day on the frontline in the eastern Donbass region yesterday after losing the now-destroyed city of Severodnik last Sunday.
Russian troops are trying to push into Lisichansk, which is opposite Severodonetsk across the North Donetsk River, to complete the capture of Luhansk, one of two eastern provinces that Moscow wants to conquer.
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