The death toll from Russian drone strikes on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih has climbed to 14, with more than 120 others wounded, Ukrainian officials confirmed.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, reported the attack on Telegram on Friday morning. “The enemy struck Kryvyi Rih. A fire broke out in a shopping center,” he wrote. Information about casualties was still being established at the time of his initial post.
The strikes hit the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The attack involved two consecutive drone strikes, a tactic known as a “double-tap” that has drawn international condemnation when used against civilian targets. The shopping center was set ablaze, with emergency crews battling a large fire at the scene.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, also reported on the attack through his Telegram channel. He confirmed that rescue workers had contained the fire and that work to fully extinguish it was underway. The city water utility and other municipal services were ensuring an uninterrupted water supply to the area. Vilkul has been a consistent source of information on Russian attacks against the city throughout the war.
The shopping center was identified as an Epitsentr home improvement store, the only one in Kryvyi Rih. The Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres confirmed that the city’s sole Epitsentr superstore caught fire as a result of the Russian attack. The store had been operating for almost 19 years since December 2007 and employed approximately 400 people.
Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, confirmed the Epitsentr had been hit. “The morning in Kryvyi Rih began with a burning Epitsentr. The occupiers cynically struck the home improvement store several times,” he wrote on Telegram. His statement underscored the repeated nature of the strikes on the same target.
The attack came less than a week after another Epitsentr facility was targeted. On the night of July 19-20, drones hit an Epitsentr in Sumy, burning the retail outlet to the ground. There were no fatalities in that attack. Nine Epitsentr home improvement stores in various regions of Ukraine have now been completely destroyed, with one more in temporarily occupied territory and 14 company facilities sustaining damage.
In the viral moment that preceded this latest tragedy, Russian forces have repeatedly struck Kryvyi Rih throughout the war, targeting both industrial and civilian infrastructure. The city, one of Ukraine’s main industrial centers, has faced persistent missile and drone attacks in recent months. In June, a Russian ballistic missile strike on civilian infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih killed at least four people and injured 30 others. That attack used an Iskander-M ballistic missile equipped with cluster munitions. Vilkul reported at that time that Russian missile and drone attacks on Kryvyi Rih had killed 118 civilians since the start of the full-scale war, including 16 children. May 2026 was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, according to a United Nations report, with at least 274 civilian deaths and 1,763 injuries verified.
President Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for increased international pressure on Russia following attacks on civilian targets. “Every such day and every Russian strike prove that the pressure on the aggressor over this war is insufficient,” Zelenskyy wrote on X after the June attack in Kryvyi Rih. “It is important that the world not remain silent about the fact that Russia has still taken no real step toward ending this war,” the president added. He has specifically urged Ukraine’s allies to accelerate deliveries of air-defense missiles, stating that “every partner knows what is needed and fully understands the consequences of delay.”
Rescue and recovery operations are continuing at the shopping center site as officials work to identify victims and assess the full extent of the damage.