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”We went to the backyard — and even asphalt was burning there.” Three days ago, the Russians fired missiles at the largest shopping center in Kremenchuk. Rescuers are still looking for people under the rubble — a report

Author:: Kamila Hrabchuk
Editor:: Yuliana Skibitska

Date:: 14:05, 1 july 2022

”We went to the backyard — and even asphalt was burning there.” Three days ago, the Russians fired missiles at the largest shopping center in Kremenchuk. Rescuers are still looking for people under the rubble — a report — Yevhenii Zavhorodnii / «Babel'»

In the afternoon of June 27, Russian troops fired rockets at Kremenchuk. One of them hit the Amstor shopping center, the cityʼs main mall. After the blow it instantly got fire and fastly burned to the ground. As the attack took place in the daytime, there were many people in the shopping center — President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there could be up to a thousand visitors. As of July 1, it is known about the death of more than 20 people, but this figure is not final, as rescuers are still dismantling the debris and finding the remains of human bodies — yesterday they found 14 more fragments. It will be possible to understand how many people they belong to only after DNA examination. Journalist Kamila Hrabchuk went to Kremenchuk, talked to rescuers, shopping center staff, doctors, and tells how the city lives after the tragedy.

On Pervomaiska Street, electricians are restoring the network cut by the wreckage of a Russian missile. Communal workers sweep away the glass blown out of the windows by an explosive wave and cover them with wooden boards. Amstor, the cityʼs largest shopping center, was located on the neighboring Khalamenyuk Street. Now all whatʼs left there is a sirte of a fire of 10 thousand square meters. Two semi-melted plastic signs still remain on the charred metal structures: Comfy and Rozetka shops signs. The area around the shopping center is fenced with a red and white ribbon, and the military stay on the perimeter. You can get closer only with special permits, if you are from police, State Emergency Service, investigator, doctor, local authority, or journalist. Rescuers are still dismantling the debris: they are looking for people, more than 30 persons are currently missing.

— I was 20 minutes late here, — a plump man in his fifties suddenly says. A local communal worker, he loads metal rubble into a cart and explains, — I was thinking of coming here, but then I changed my mind. I decided to go to the bazaar first. Well, thank God I did this.

— And what was here? — I ask.

— Cafes, shops with home appliances, grocery stores, a pharmacy... A mall, in one word. It was. It used to be. I have many acquaintances here… — his voice starts to tremble. — I canʼt speak.

The shopping center was hit 7-10 minutes after the air alarm signal, and fire broke out a few minutes later. The one-story frame building started burning up very quickly, glass and even metal melted due to the high temperature.

— The siren has already sounded, I got dressed and wanted to leave the place, and it hit so loud, — recalls 62-year-old Valentyna, who lives in a house across the street from Amstor. — First one time, then the second one. Everything was in smoke. I go out, and here were guys in wounds, and blood. I wanted to go to the basement, and there was also blood on the asphalt. It was such a horror. The children were screaming, people were lying there — apparently, the blast wave threw them away. Where did they aim? Bastards, so many people died!

The exact number of dead in Amstor is still unknown and is unlikely to be known in the near future. Rescuers are still dismantling the debris and finding body fragments on the fire, which can only be identified in the laboratory. Most of the victims, according to the SES, were found in the right part of the building — thatʼs where the missile hit. There were Comfy, Eldorado, and Toy House stores.

— I was at work, in Comfy. I went out for a smoke break, the air alarm started, I decided not to return, but to go to the shelter, — says 28-year-old Roman, a tall, strong man with a thick black beard. — And in the moment I came in the shelter, there was an explosion. Then everything was in a fog, we started calling everyone — someone got in touch, someone didnʼt. We tried to run to the shopping center, but it was impossible due to the smoke and ashes. We ran to the backyard, and even asphalt was burning thre.

Roman came to the hospital to support his wounded colleagues. He says that there are four of them here, six more are still being searched under the rubble.

Despite the air alarm, people remained in the mall.

— On June 23, the Amstor administration decided not to close the mall during an air raid, — said Victoria, 33. She worked there as a manager of the open store for the sale of Glo tobacco devices. — We havenʼt worked for almost two months [after the start of a full-scale invasion]. Then we opened on the condition that we close during the air alarms. And so we did, although on June 23 the administration of the shopping center wrote: "We are no longer closing." I addressed my management with the words that we will close in case of air alarms in any case because I understand all the fragility of this building, I understand all the responsibility for the lives of my employees and for my life — I still want to live, Iʼm quite young.

When the alarm signal sounded, Victoria was in the warehouse. She admits that the thought of ignoring the alarm flashed by. But still, she called two of her subordinates and went with them to the shelter — across the road from Amstor. They didnʼt have time to go in — everyone was blown inside by an explosive wave.

However, most employees of the shopping center then remained at their jobs, as well as customers.

— I am the head of the store of the Allo retail chain. On June 27, I was on vacation, — says 27-year-old Yana. She came to photograph the aftermath of the missile strike for the network managers. — Immediately after arrival, the employees called me. Thank God, everyone is alive. I still donʼt believe this happened. The two of them went to the shelter when they heard the air alarm. Unfortunately, three remained to work. We couldnʼt tell customers, "Sorry, get out of the store". Then the explosion happened, everything is in smoke/ Bt they did not lose consciousness and, as far as I know, got out through the pharmacy with customers.

Yulia, 22, and her family evacuated from Kharkiv to Kremenchuk two months ago.

— I had an internship at Amstor, got a job there, — says Julia. — There were many alarms. Earlier, we used to leave the shopping center, but this time everything happened so fast. Iʼm sitting, everything is fine, then — click — Iʼm already under the rubble and thereʼs nothing I can do, so I panic. And then Iʼm lying on the street, and then in the hospital.

Julia has numerous shrapnel wounds to her arms and neck, her head was stitched, but her life is not in danger. At the time of the explosion, she was in the shopping stand which sells mobile accessories, near the exit from the mall. Perhaps this is what saved her life — the girl was pulled out before the fire started. Ihor, a 55-year-old resident of Kremenchuk, was lucky not to lose consciousness and get out of the smoke-covered building on his own.

— I went there to repair my phone. I went to Comfy for this, but just didnʼt reach it. I saw a red flash flying in. Then, in a few seconds, an explosion. Everything is in smoke, in dust. I just crawled out of all this.

Paramedic and volunteer Yuriy Hudz was among those who heard the explosion and came to rescue the wounded. He says that before the fire started, rescuers managed to pull out several people.

— There were volunteers who, without fear of anything, just put wet T-shirts on their faces [and went inside]. These are ordinary citizens who were there at that time. They not just stood and watched. There was one team on the left, then another one, then the police, the National Guard, volunteers. This was really our Ukrainian story when we unite and just do incredible things. At one point, someone started shouting: "Doctor, doctor!" There were many of them, all started running at this cry. But it was just a hand under the wreckage[, without the rest of the body].

Representatives of Russia deny their guilt. It is said that they aimed at the ammunition hangar, which is allegedly located near the shopping center. In response to these allegations, Svitlana Rybalko, a spokeswoman for the Poltava Oblast State Emergency Service, gave journalists a tour of the Kredmash road constructing machinery plant, which was hit by a second missile.

— There was no military equipment, no weapons, no army units. This plant manufactures road repair equipment — concrete mixers and mobile road repair plants. And Russia knows it. In recent months the plant worked at minimum capacity. This is not the production that is in high demand in time of hostilities.

The work shift at the plant ended half an hour before the explosion. Therefore, most of the workers had already left the area at the time of the attack. The missile destroyed one of the production facilities, two people were injured.