At least 16 people have been killed and over 50 injured following a Russian missile strike on a busy shopping centre in Ukraine with horrific images showing the building engulfed in flames.
With around 1,000 people inside shopping at the time of the explosions President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "impossible to imagine" how many victims there would be in the end.
The entire mall in Kremenchuk erupted into flames following the blast caused by two rockets.
Harrowing pictures shared on social media showed huge flames billowing from the building as teams launched a massive rescue operation for those trapped inside.
Senior Ukrainian officials say 16 people were killed in the atrocity along with 59 more wounded.
"This is the sixth time the city has been bombed" since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, deputy director of the surgery department at Kremenchuk's public hospital. "But never before did it hit so many people."
The hospital is treating 25 people injured in the attack, six of them in critical condition, he said.
The strike drew a global outcry, with leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies, gathered for a summit in Germany, condemning it as "abominable".
"This is not an accidental hit, this is a calculated Russian strike," President Zelensky said in an evening video address. He said the death count could rise.
He estimated around 1,000 people were in the mall at the time of the strike. The city had a population of 217,000 before
the invasion.
People lined up at a hotel near the mall to register the names of those missing. More than 40 people had been reported
missing, Ukraine's prosecutor general's office said.
Rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble to look for survivors.
One patient in the hospital's general ward, Ludmyla Mykhailets, 43, said she was shopping at an electronics store with her husband, Mykola, when the blast threw her into the air.
"I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing. Then I landed on the floor and I don't know if I was conscious or unconscious," she said, adding she had broken her arm and split her head open.
"It was hell," added Mykola, 45, blood seeping through a bandage wrapped around his head.
Outside the hospital, a small group of mall workers were filled with worry and grief, but also relief.
Meanwhile, Russian media dismissed the attacks as a "fake" operation, claiming those spotted running from the scene in terror were extras.
State TV war reporter Andrey Rudenko said: “These freaks are back to provocations.
“The shopping mall in Kremenchuk, with allegedly thousands of people inside it. Videos show an empty car park with just a couple of cars. Was this a working shopping centre, there would have been lots of cars.
"Were there people inside the centre, and were they to be wounded or killed, then there would be no way these cars would be cleared away.
"There is a feeling of a crowd of ‘extras’, similar to football fans or something like it.
"Conclusion: there is a sense they set it up themselves, or shot it for a strong pictures but they didn’t do it properly, again.”
Similar claims have been dismissed out of hand by Russian media over a number of atrocities since the outbreak of war.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned Vladimir Putin's "cruelty and barbarism" following the missile attack.
He added: "This appalling attack has shown once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism to which the Russian leader will sink.
"Once again our thoughts are with the families of innocent victims in Ukraine. Putin must realise his behaviour will do nothing but strengthen the resolve of the Ukraine and every other G7 country to stand by the Ukraine for as long as it takes."
It comes as it is was reported hundreds of thousands of NATO troops will be switched to high-readiness alert following Russia 's invasion of Ukraine.
Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg revealed more than 300,000 forces will be stood up to the category - a huge boost from the 40,000 in the coalition’s existing response force.
The announcement came as NATO leaders prepare to descend on Madrid for a crunch summit tomorrow.
Speaking at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr Stoltenberg pledged a “fundamental shift in NATO’s deterrence and defence”.
He said: "We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000.”
The measure is designed at bolstering defences on the 30-member alliance’s eastern flank, where Baltic states border Russia.
The countries fear mounting aggression from Moscow following Putin ’s war on Russia’s neighbour.
