Ukrainian officials say four people were killed and 60 others were wounded when a Russian drone hit a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Interior Minister, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said the attack took place in daylight when, as he put it, the streets were full of people. Shops and vehicles were struck, and emergency services responded to damage and fires after the strike.
Pavlohrad Attack Details
Ukrainian State Emergency Service images showed firefighters directing hoses at burning vehicles amid thick smoke on a street in Pavlohrad.
Vyhivskyi said two of the injured were members of the emergency service. A child was also reported among those hurt.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to families and loved ones of the victims. In his statement, he said drones were used to kill people who were standing near shopping centres.
Pavlohrad, a logistics hub close to the city of Dnipro, has faced repeated attacks in recent months. Ukrainian officials previously reported two deaths in an attack on warehouses there last month.
Strikes in Sumy and Zaporizhzhia
Earlier this week, Ukrainian media reported that two other shopping malls were targeted by Russian air strikes, one in Zaporizhzhia and one in Sumy.
In Sumy, Ukrainian authorities said a Russian drone strike on Wednesday killed two people and injured 20. On Thursday, Russian aerial bombing reportedly injured eight people in the city, including three children.
In Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital that was partially annexed by Russia soon after the invasion, a shopping mall was almost completely destroyed on Monday. The owners said it was closed at the time, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Other Reports From Russia and Ukraine
Ukrainian officials have cited a pattern of attacks affecting shopping areas in both government-controlled and Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine. They said last month Russian drones killed at least 16 people and injured 130 in Kryvyi Rih when strikes hit a shopping centre.
Shopping centres in Russian-controlled areas have also been targeted. A Ukrainian drone attack on a mall was reported on Monday in Mariupol, in Russia’s Donetsk region. Another attack was reported last month in Donetsk.
Elsewhere, Russian officials said Ukrainian seaborne drones attacked the shoreline at Sochi overnight on Wednesday. They reported 28 people were wounded, including two children, and also said there were three additional deaths attributed to Ukrainian attacks.
On Thursday, Russian officials reported that a Ukrainian drone strike on the town of Novy Oskol in Belgorod region killed one person and injured six others. They also said a Ukrainian attack on a car in Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday killed a 15-year-old girl and wounded a six-year-old child, as well as two women. A separate strike on a civilian lorry in the same region was said to have killed a man.
War and Diplomacy Context
A full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine has continued since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion more than four and a half years ago.
A new peacemaking effort launched by US President Donald Trump’s envoys at the weekend appears to have produced few concrete results. Reports said talks took place in Moscow with Putin and in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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11 September 2026
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