Investigation obtains names of Russian Federation pilots who struck shopping centre in Kremenchuk ‒ Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — TUESDAY, 28 JUNE 2022, 11:33

Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have already obtained the names of Russian pilots who fired a missile at a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, killing at least 18 people.

Source: Denys Monastyrskyi, Minister of Internal Affairs, during a briefing at the scene

Quote from Monastyrskyi: "Analysts of the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have established which regiment of (Russian) aviation committed this crime. We already have the first names of pilots who flew on the Tu-22 and fired the fatal shots."

Details: Monastyrskyi has not given last names yet.

There are currently 18 dead in Kremenchuk – 21 people are missing. On 27 June, 59 people wounded in the attack called the hospital – 25 were hospitalised, and 1 person died at the hospital.

Most of the bodies can’t be recognized because they are very burnt, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained. Identification will depend on how quickly relatives of missing persons donate DNA. Monastyrskyi noted that a special forensic laboratory has been brought to Kremenchuk.

The minister says that the removal of this level of debris usually takes about a week, but rescuers will try to finish the job by Wednesday morning. Only then will it be possible to establish a final death toll.

As for the information about the "thousand people," Monastyrskyi stated that such a large number of visitors could indeed have been in the shopping centre. It is believed that most people were able to leave the mall after the air-raid siren was heard. 

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasised that it was a deliberate strike on social infrastructure, as there is no military facility within a 5 kilometres radius.

Previously: On 27 June, Russians launched a missile strike on the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk. There was a large-scale fire. The mall was destroyed.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Air Force Command, told Ukrainska Pravda that Russia had struck Kremenchuk with an X-22 missile fired from a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber deployed from Kursk.