Latest Russia-Ukraine war news: Live updates

There is a “realistic possibility” that a Russian missile strike on a busy shopping mall in central Ukraine that killed at least 18 people Monday and was denounced as a willful attack against civilians by Ukrainian officials had been intended to hit another target, the British Defense Ministry said Wednesday

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Tuesday that its air force hit warehouses storing Western-donated weapons and ammunition, causing a fire at a “non-functioning shopping center” nearby. Ukrainian officials said the mall was filled with civilians at the time of the attack, and videos from the scene showed buildings engulfed in smoke and people running for cover.

There is a realistic possibility the missile strike on the Kremenchuk shopping center on 27 June 2022 was intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target,” the British Defense Ministry said. “Russia’s inaccuracy in conducting long range strikes has previously resulted in mass civilian casualty incidents,” it added, citing a strike against a railway station in April that killed at least 50 people.

“Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive military necessity in striking a target,” it concluded in an intelligence update.

The ministry said it was “almost certain” that Russia would conduct other strikes to prevent Ukraine from resupplying its forces on the eastern front — and those strikes would “highly likely result in further civilian casualties.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denied that Russian forces struck the shopping center and accused Ukraine of endangering civilians by storing ammunition near population centers.

“Why do Western regimes supply weapons to the territory of Ukraine, which are stored in close proximity to a densely populated civilian infrastructure?” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing.

Addressing the U.N. Security Council remotely Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky argued that Russia would have known the mall would be hit, and he called on the United Nations to send an official to Kremenchuk to confirm “that this indeed was a Russian missile strike.”

Zakharova on Wednesday called the comments from Ukraine “provocations.”

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations condemned the Kremenchuk mall attack as a war crime, calling it “abominable” and promising “unwavering support” for Ukraine in a statement.