More than 1,000 people were inside when two Russian missiles slammed into the mall in the city of Kremenchuk, southeast of Kyiv, Zelensky wrote on Telegram. At least 16 people were killed and 59 injured, Ukraine's emergency services said. Rescuers trawled through mangled metal and debris for survivors.

"This is not an accidental hit, this is a calculated Russian strike exactly onto this shopping centre," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening video address, adding there were women and children inside. He said the death count could rise.

Russia has not commented on the strike, which was condemned by the United Nations and Ukraine's Western allies. But its deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused Ukraine of using the incident to gain sympathy ahead of a June 28-30 summit of the NATO military alliance.

"One should wait for what our Ministry of Defence will say, but there are too many striking discrepancies already," Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.

As night fell in Kremenchuk, firefighters and soldiers brought lights and generators to continue the search. Family members, some close to tears and with hands over their mouths, lined up at a hotel across the street where rescue workers had set up a base.

Kiril Zhebolovsky, 24, was looking for his friend, Ruslan, 22, who worked at the Comfy electronics store and had not been heard from since the blast.

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