Ukraine president asks UN to investigate site of bombed shopping mall in Kremenchuk

WASHINGTON

Ukraine’s president asked the UN on Tuesday to send an envoy or a commission to investigate the site of a shopping mall bombing.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting via teleconference, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 18 people were killed, 50 wounded and dozens are missing from the attack Monday on the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk.

"I suggest the United Nations send either special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, or a credential commission to decide of this terrorist act in Kremenchuk so that the UN could independently find out all the information and see that this indeed was a Russian missile strike," Zelenskyy told the Council.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry said its strike on a weapons and ammunition warehouse in Kremenchuk prompted the fire at the mall, which it said was not operational.

Zelenskyy said Russia is violating fundamental principles of the UN and the international order, and it is still not held to account at the global level.

The attack caused a huge fire and sent dark smoke billowing into the sky, footage shared on social media showed.

More than 4,700 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the war started Feb. 24, while more than 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to the UN.