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Clean-up work on the shopping center in Kremenchuk
Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / dpa
What has happened in the past few hours
The authorities received more than 40 missing persons reports
after the
rocket attack on a shopping center in Ukraine .
This was announced by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the number of people killed rose from 13 to 15, according to the governor of the Poltava region, Dmytro Lunin. According to the prosecutor, 59 people received medical treatment, around half of them are in a serious condition.
The rocket hit the building in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday afternoon.
Ukraine blamed Russia for the attack.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more than a thousand civilians were in the mall at the time of the attack.
The attack was harshly condemned internationally.
"Arbitrary attacks on innocent civilians are war crimes," said a statement by the G7 participants on Monday evening.
"Russian President Putin and those responsible will have to account for this."
US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter of a "cruel" attack.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the attack showed once again "the level of cruelty and barbarism the Russian leader is capable of".
EU Council President Charles Michel wrote of a "terribly indiscriminate" Russian missile attack;
Russia's intimidation tactics will not work.
And French President Emmanuel Macron described the act on Twitter as "absolute horror" (you can read more about the attack and the reactions to it here).
A
deadly rocket attack
also occurred
in the
eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk .
At least eight people were killed, according to authorities.
More than 20 others were injured, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, wrote on Telegram.
Lysychank is the last major city in the region still under Ukrainian control after the Russian military seized neighboring Seyerodonetsk.
In the city of
Kharkiv
, according to Ukrainian regional commander Oleg Sinegubov, Russian shelling killed five civilians and wounded 22 others.
Sinegubow wrote on Telegram that five children were among the injured.
The Russian
opposition politician Ilya Yashin
has apparently been
arrested
in Moscow .
The journalist Irina Babloyan reported on Telegram that she was walking in the park with her boyfriend Yashin when the police came and took him away.
Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, who has represented Russian opposition figures on several occasions, also said that Yashin is in custody - allegedly for disobeying a police officer.
He was not allowed to see Yashin, the lawyer said.
There is no official confirmation of the arrest yet.
That says Kyiv
After the rocket attack on the shopping center in Kremenchuk, President
Zelenskyi urged
the West to provide modern anti-aircraft
systems
.
Ukraine asked for it before the war and immediately after the Russian invasion, he said in his daily video address on Tuesday night.
“People in the Kremenchuk mall deserve the same security as people in any mall in the world, whether it be somewhere in Philadelphia or Tel Aviv, or in a shopping arcade in Dresden.
The world can – and therefore must – stop Russian terror.«
Zelenskyy described Russia after the attack as "the largest terrorist organization in the world".
That must also be determined legally.
“And everyone in the world needs to know that if you buy or ship Russian oil, have contacts with Russian banks, or pay taxes or duties to the Russian state, you are giving money to terrorists.”
Moscow says so
Former Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev
has threatened NATO with devastating consequences should a member state intervene in any way in Crimea.
“For us, Crimea is part of Russia.
And that means forever.
Any attempt to invade Crimea is a declaration of war on our country,” Medvedev told the weekly Argumenty i Fakty.
“And if this is done by a NATO member state, it means a conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance, a third world war.
A total catastrophe,” Medvedev continued.
He also threatened Finland and Sweden with armaments in the immediate vicinity if they joined NATO.
They were then also ready for "retaliatory measures" - which included Iskander missiles "at their border" (read more about Iskander missiles here).
Russian President
Vladimir Putin
and his Brazilian counterpart
Jair Bolsonaro
have spoken over the phone about the world's food supply.
This was announced by the Russian Presidential Office.
Both countries have also agreed to expand their strategic partnership.
Economic Reactions
The
rating agency Moody's has
determined that Russia has
defaulted on payments due to international investors not paying their debts on time
.
Specifically, it is about interest payments on two government bonds that have not reached creditors even after a delay of 30 days.
The US company announced this on Monday (local time) in New York.
But it is not a bankruptcy in the true sense.
Russia's coffers are well stocked.
But because of Western sanctions over the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is struggling to pay foreign debts.
According to the Interfax agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow's payments were blocked because of sanctions "is not our problem."
Germany's gas storage
facilities are getting
a little fuller
: As the website of Europe's gas infrastructure operator (GIE) revealed on Monday evening, the storage facilities were 60.26 percent full.
That was 0.34 percentage points more than a day earlier.
The aim is to fill the storage tanks at least 90 percent by the beginning of November.
However, it is questionable whether this will succeed in view of the restricted deliveries and the threat of a complete stop to gas from Russia.
What is happening today
The G7 summit
ends today in
Elmau
, Bavaria
. Among other things, it is supposed to deal with the new world order after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden want to meet in the morning.
The summit then ends with the adoption of a final declaration and a press conference by the host: Scholz.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin
travels to the Central Asian ex-Soviet republic of
Tajikistan
.
It is his first officially known trip abroad since the war began four months ago.
Before the NATO summit officially begins on Wednesday, a meal with the King of Spain is on the agenda for some of the participants tonight.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also advising Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finland's President Sauli Niinistö on the Nordic countries' possible NATO membership.
The
UN Security Council
will today discuss the rocket attack on a Ukrainian shopping center.
That's what diplomats said in New York.
The meeting at 9 p.m. CEST was therefore scheduled at the request of Ukraine.
bbr/aar/dpa/Reuters/AFP