A Russian air raid on a shopping centre and market in Dobropillia in eastern Ukraine has killed at least two people, wounded 22 others and caused widespread damage, officials said, the latest blow to United States President Donald Trump’s calls for Moscow to end its attacks on the neighbouring country.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor of eastern Donetsk region, said a 500kg (1,100-pound) bomb was deployed at 5:20pm (14:20 GMT) on Wednesday, when shoppers were out.
He said two people were killed and 22 injured, with eight nearby apartment blocks and eight cars destroyed.
Video posted online showed areas around the shopping centre on fire with smoke billowing skywards.
“Firefighters are extinguishing the blaze as there is a possibility that people are still inside the shopping centre,” Filashkin told Ukrainian television.
“The occupier dropped the bomb at a time when Dobropillia was crowded with people. Many were out shopping. The occupier specifically targeted the shopping centre. All nearby shopping centres have been either destroyed or damaged.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, described the attack as “simply horrific, stupid Russian terror. There is no military logic to their strikes, only an effort to take as many lives as possible”.
The bombing comes after Russia fired hundreds of drones, artillery and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight and early on Wednesday, defying Trump’s call on Monday to reach a peace deal within 50 days or face severe sanctions.
Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west, and Odesa in the south.
The latest bombardments in Russia’s escalating aerial campaign against civilian areas came ahead of a September 2 deadline set by Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war, under the threat of possible severe sanctions if it does not.
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. Two previous rounds delivered no progress, apart from prisoner swaps.
Trump on Monday pledged to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defence systems, and threatened to slap additional sanctions on Russia. They were Trump’s toughest public comments towards Russian President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the White House nearly six months ago.
But some US lawmakers and European government officials expressed misgivings that the 50-day deadline handed Putin the opportunity to capture more Ukrainian territory before any settlement to end the fighting.
Other US ultimatums to Putin in recent months have failed to persuade the Russian leader to halt attacks.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of them along the more than 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line, and Russian barrages of cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the United Nations says.
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