Russian drones hit Ukrainian shopping centre twice, killing at least 15

At least 15 people were killed and 130 wounded, including 23 children, when two Russian drones struck a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, the central Ukrainian city that is President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, Ukrainian emergency services said on Friday.

Zelensky posted a photo showing black smoke billowing from a large industrial building and described the strike as "absolutely cynical and despicable." He said the second drone hit the shopping centre roughly half an hour after the first, calling it a deliberate attempt to target emergency responders who had already arrived at the scene. He described such attacks as terrorist acts and urged the international community to hold Russia accountable.

Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city about 60 kilometres from the front line, has faced repeated Russian attacks throughout the war.

Separately, four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region, Interior Minister Ivan Vygivsky said.

Air war intensifies on both sides

Russia is escalating its aerial campaign against Ukraine as ground fighting approaches the four-and-a-half-year mark of the war. A Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday killed 17 people.

Ukraine has also intensified long-range drone strikes on Russian territory, targeting oil facilities, warehouses and logistics infrastructure. On Friday, a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in Russia's Belgorod region, near the village of Razumnoye, killed one person and wounded four, two of them seriously, local officials said.

Zelensky said a Ukrainian drone had struck an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600 kilometres from Ukraine's border, as well as the Marinovka military airfield in Russia's Volgograd region. Russian outlet Astra reported the strike set ablaze a Lukoil-operated refinery in Perm, while local officials confirmed damage to an unidentified industrial facility.