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Military operation in Ukraine

Kremenchug shopping mall catches fire after Russia strikes hangar of US weapons — Lavrov

The strike targeted the hangar that received European and American weapons and ammunition, the top diplomat stressed

ASHGABAT, June 28. /TASS/. A shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchug caught fire after ammunition exploded at a nearby arms arsenal struck by Russian forces, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"The strike targeted the hangar that received European and American weapons and ammunition. The ammunition detonation set fire to the nearby empty shopping mall," Lavrov said after a meeting of foreign ministers from the Caspian states.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported earlier on Tuesday that Russia’s Aerospace Forces had delivered strikes by precision weapons against hangars of US and EU weapons and ammunition in Kremenchug near Poltava.

"On June 27, the Russian Aerospace Forces delivered a strike by air-launched high-precision weapons against hangars of weapons and ammunition from the United States and European countries in the area of the Kremenchug road machinery factory in the city of Kremenchug in the Poltava Region," the spokesman said.

The strike wiped out Western-made weapons and ammunition intended for their delivery to the Ukrainian battlegroup in Donbass, the general specified.

"The detonation of the stored ammunition for Western weapons caused a fire at a defunct shopping mall located close to the factory’s territory," Konashenkov added.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post on Monday that a shopping mall was on fire in Kremenchug. He claimed that the fire had been caused by a missile strike. Meanwhile, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky stated that there were a lot of obvious inconsistencies in the situation with the shopping mall in Kremenchug that looked like the provocation in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

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