Russian forces attacked a mall in Kyiv, Ukraine, late Sunday, killing eight people and destroying the complex, according to local authorities.
The rocket attack is just the latest onslaught Russian forces have launched against civilians and civilian structures in Ukraine, according to authorities. Russian forces have also damaged residential buildings near the mall, the Kyiv City Administration said.
Sixty-five civilians are already dead as a result of shelling in Kyiv, the city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, said on Ukrainian television Monday.
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Russian forces have been attacking civilians with such vigor because Russian President Vladimir Putin is frustrated with the slow pace of his invasion of Ukraine—thanks in part to fierce resistance from Ukrainians—Klitschko said.
“The aggressor wanted to capture Kyiv within two to three days. He did not succeed,” Klitschko said on Ukrainian television Monday. “Our military is giving a decent rebuff. And the Russians are already starting to wander around the homes of civilians out of helplessness.”
U.S. government officials have said in recent days that Russian forces are going after civilians due to the delay as well. Putin has been resorting to “disgusting” attacks against civilians in recent days because his campaign in Ukraine has been “stalled, “ Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“We’ve all been shocked by the brutality we continue to witness day in and day out,” Lloyd said at a press conference in Slovakia.
Klitschko suggested the attack on the mall must have been intentional, and said it is an indication that any companies still doing business with Russia need to wake up to the atrocities Russia is inflicting on Ukrainians, and reassess their priorities.
“This attack on a shopping center is not a coincidence. Putin wants to starve the civilians to make them pressurize their leaders,” he said on Twitter. “Let’s pressurize Putin‘s Russia instead. If you continue to do business with them, you have blood on your hands.”
The Pentagon has assessed that Russia’s attacks are designed to hit civilians.
“We continue to see indiscriminate attacks against civilians which we believe in many cases is intentional,” Press Secretary John Kirby said Monday during a briefing.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, five children have been hospitalized and are in critical condition after Russians opened fire on them evacuating out of Mariupol, the head of the Zaporizhia Regional Administration said Monday. The Minister of Health of Ukraine noted Monday that Russian forces have hit 135 hospitals, a number of which have been completely leveled, since the beginning of the war.
The State Department is investigating these kinds of brutal attacks against civilians, Austin said.
Russian forces have so far captured Kherson, Melitopol, and Berdyansk, but Russia hasn’t nearly advanced as far as it had hoped, a senior U.S. defense official said on a call Monday. They are still working to advance towards Kyiv, and “heavy fighting” is taking place north of the city—but the Russians remain “stalled” miles away from the city, British defense intelligence said Monday.
In the coming weeks, Russia will likely remain focused on taking Kyiv, according to British intelligence.
“Despite the continued lack of progress, Kyiv remains Russia’s primary military objective and they are likely to prioritize attempting to encircle the city over the coming weeks,” the intelligence agency said Monday.
