Russian drone strikes on a busy Ukrainian shopping mall on Friday evening killed at least 16 people and injured more than 130 others, including 23 children, according to local authorities. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said that Russian drones hit the mall in the south-central city of Kryvyi Rih during peak shopping hours in broad daylight.

“The attack drones struck in two waves — half an hour after the first hit and the fire, there was a second strike targeting the emergency responders,” Zelenskyy said of the bombardment that targeted his hometown.

The tactic, used by Russia throughout its war, is known as a double-tap attack, where an attack is followed closely by a second, deliberately timed strike on the same target to maximise casualties. 

Videos published on social media showed smoke rising from the mall after the initial attack as another explosive drone nosedived into the building.

Oleksandr Hanzha, the regional governor, said that nine people in the mall during the attack were still unaccounted for on Saturday morning, including two children, and that rescuers continued to search through the debris. Dozens of victims were hospitalised, with five children among the 29 people in serious condition.

Zelenskyy called the attack “absolutely cynical and despicable” and said Ukraine “will definitely respond.”

“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” he added. The president implored the world to “respond to them accordingly — with real pressure” on Russia to end its war, which began four and a half years ago. 

In an interview with state television broadcast on Saturday, Vladimir Putin said air strikes against Ukrainian cities would continue and claimed they were helping his forces achieve their goals on the battlefield.

The Russian president claimed Ukraine had “opened Pandora’s box” by increasing its strikes against Russian infrastructure and said Moscow was stepping up its own strikes in response. 

“Well then, your infrastructure will get our response,” Putin said. “If you want to destroy our logistics, you won’t have to wait for our army to react. Come and get it.”

Putin also indicated he had rejected ideas for a ceasefire sent by Ukraine through back channels, which he said were “sometimes exotic in nature and unacceptable”. 

Russia has increased its air strikes against Ukraine in recent months, particularly with ballistic missiles. It has refused to sit down at the negotiating table and has attempted instead to pound Ukraine into submission while continuing its ground offensive on the eastern battlefields of the Donbas. 

A missile and drone attack on Kyiv on Thursday killed 17 people. The bombardment targeted industrial facilities, fuel depots, warehouses and residential buildings.

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News in-depthWar in Ukraine

Sun, sea and bombs in Odesa

Russia’s escalation has coincided with Ukraine running out of US-made Patriot missile interceptors. A global shortage of the only weapon Ukraine has access to that is capable of reliably shooting down Russian ballistic missiles has exposed a critical gap in the country’s defences.

Early on Saturday morning, Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv and Odesa, damaging railway infrastructure in both cities, authorities said.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy spoke to President Emmanuel Macron of France “about all the most important issues”, in particular the need for air defence.

Zelenskyy said Macron would “communicate with our other partners who have the necessary missiles for Patriots” and that they “agreed to accelerate the delivery of the latest French equipment and missiles”.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has intensified its own air campaign against Russian military bases, energy facilities, shipping vessels and ports that power the Kremlin’s war machine.

Kyiv has also targeted warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Zelenskyy said the company played a crucial role in the transport of military equipment, including components used in drones. 

Senior Ukrainian officials said the strikes on the Amazon-like business were also in retaliation for Moscow’s attacks on facilities owned by Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal service. 

On Wednesday, Putin ordered the Russian government to help rebuild Wildberries warehouses destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks.

On Saturday, Ukraine appeared to expand its attacks by targeting a warehouse operated by Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online retailer, in the Samara region. The company said that 500 workers had been evacuated when a fire broke out. It said there were “some casualties” without providing specifics.

Ukraine also hit an oil refinery in the same region. Zelenskyy said on X that the strike would deprive “the Russian war machine of millions of dollars in export revenues”.

Additional reporting by Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv and Adrienne Klasa in Paris

An Israeli strike on a Syrian air base this week may have been a political attempt at “baiting” Turkey into a conflict ahead of Israeli elections later this autumn, a senior US diplomat said on Saturday.

The comments by Tom Barrack, Washington’s ambassador to Ankara and special envoy for Syria, were the sharpest US criticism yet of the Israeli raid on the Abu al-Duhur military air base in north-west Syria on Tuesday.

After the raid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the base was targeted due to fears that Turkey would establish itself at the site and threaten Israeli security. Israeli analysts speculated that Turkey intended to establish air-defence radars and attack drones at the base.

In an interview with an online social media platform on Saturday, Barrack said the claims were unfounded, adding that there were no Turkish military assets at the site, nor did Ankara intend to move into the base.

The US envoy suggested that Israel might have been “baiting the Turks” in a “very aggressive but well received pre-election concept” ahead of the October general election, in which Netanyahu is trailing in the polls.

In the immediate aftermath of the strike, Barrack had said that Ankara could have activated fighter jets to intercept the Israeli warplanes, risking an “unnecessary escalation”. On Saturday he said this could have resulted in “World War Three”.

In the same interview Barrack added that a second theory for the Israeli raid could be a “miscommunication” between Netanyahu’s office, the Israel Defense Forces and the country’s Mossad intelligence service.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz rejected Barrack’s comments in a highly unusual statement issued on Saturday afternoon during the Jewish Sabbath.

He said the IDF had on several occasions recommended striking Abu al-Duhur “in light of clear intelligence” that Turkey intended to “conduct operations” at the site.

Katz also claimed that a “direct warning” was delivered to the Syrian government and that the US was informed ahead of time — something Barrack had denied.

“[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and was forced to retreat,” Katz said, condemning what he claimed was an attempt to depict the strike in a political light.

He also criticised Barrack’s comments that the Golan Heights — which were seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed — were “occupied” Syrian land, saying US President Donald Trump had recognised Israeli sovereignty over the territory during his first term in office.

Turkey is one of the principal backers of the government of new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former militant Islamist who led the rebel offensive that ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Ankara has provided military training, equipment and logistical support to Damascus to rebuild state institutions shattered by Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, which left half a million people dead.

But Israel sees Sharaa’s government, which is dominated by his Islamist faction, as a threat. It has conducted widespread strikes in the country since the overthrow of Assad, destroyed much of the former regime’s military infrastructure and occupied swaths of southern Syria, calling it a “security zone”.

Turkey has kept thousands of troops in northern Syria after making several interventions during the civil war. Israel has objected to Turkey establishing military infrastructure that could restrict its freedom of action, especially in Syrian airspace.

Abu al-Duhur air base is about 70km from the Turkish border in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, which was a rebel holdout during the civil war. It had been largely out of service for more than a decade but was in the process of being reactivated.

A Turkish delegation visited the facility to inspect the work just hours before the Israeli strikes, according to Turkish media.

Relations between Israel and Turkey, which has Nato’s second-biggest army after the US, began to significantly deteriorate in 2024 over Israel’s war in Gaza, with Ankara suspending bilateral trade.

Since then their differences have escalated, particularly over Syria.

As Israel carried out military operations in Syria and Lebanon in June, Erdoğan said that “Turkey’s security . . . begins from Aleppo, it begins from Damascus, it begins from Beirut”. He added: “We will not turn a blind eye to any attack against our brothers.”

Israel has increasingly portrayed Turkey’s expanding regional role as a security challenge of its own, with some Israeli politicians and analysts even dubbing Turkey the “new Iran”.

THE AYATOLLAHS AT THE END OF THE TETHER

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for Tehran to end the war with the US from a “position of strength”, as economic pressure fuels debate within the regime about how much further to pursue the conflict.

US President Donald Trump this week said Washington would mount a new campaign of “economic warfare” against Iran in a strategy to force it to cave to his demands and reopen the Strait of Hormuz after weeks of torturous diplomatic efforts.

An interim agreement between the two countries fell apart last month, with both sides accusing each other of violating it. The regime’s top wartime and military decision makers — including the powerful Revolutionary Guards — insist that Washington cannot be trusted and that Tehran is able to resist economic pressure and inflict a greater cost before agreeing to a final settlement.

But senior officials, including Pezeshkian and parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, have warned of growing economic pain as Iranians struggle with the spiralling cost of living.

In public remarks on Friday, Pezeshkian, who is responsible for running the economy but does not decide wartime strategy, said it would be “better to end the war today while we are in a position of strength and dignity”.

He defended the interim memorandum of understanding Tehran signed with Washington in June, designed to gradually reopen the strait and lay the foundation for further talks, as “dignified”, claiming that Iran had made no “concessions” while the US had taken on “all obligations”.

His comments came as Trump appeared to be betting on using further economic pressure to weaken the regime, both through the US blockade on Iranian ports and what he said would be “tremendous economic consequences” for countries that trade with Tehran.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who said he would announce measures against Iran on Monday, added that Washington was seeking to “collapse” the Islamic republic with “the toughest sanctions in history”.

Iran’s foreign ministry said US sanctions constituted “economic terrorism” and “crimes against humanity”, adding that those ordering and implementing them were “liable for prosecution and punishment”.

Iran’s leaders have resisted reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial Gulf waterway and the country’s main source of leverage over the US, without securing guarantees that Washington will meet its commitments under any deal.

But some within the system worry that Tehran is overplaying its hand.

Abdolnaser Hemmati, Iran’s central bank governor, said this week that Iran’s oil exports were halted, affecting the country’s oil sales revenues. “It is a reality that we are not exporting oil,” he said. “The Americans have frozen our foreign exchange reserves and do not allow us to access them.”

Yaser Mirzaei, deputy head of Iran’s Energy Optimisation Organisation, a state body that addresses the nation’s energy challenges and management of resources, added that the country was facing “limitations” in petrol imports and had been “significantly drawing from reserves” in recent months to meet “excessively high consumption”.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei this month appointed Mohsen Rezaei, a former Guards commander, as the country’s top security official in a move that Iranian analysts interpreted as a sign that figures such as Ghalibaf had been pushed aside.

But speaking in neighbouring Iraq on Friday, Ghalibaf said the country should not confuse military and economic resilience.

“No matter how strong we are militarily, if the people are hungry and we do not have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,” he said. “We must plan to overcome these oppressive sanctions.”