War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin rejects Russian responsibility for the strike in Kremenchuk
Sylvie Claire / June 30, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday blamed the Russian military for a strike that Kiev said killed at least 18 people in a crowded shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
Our army does not hit any civilian infrastructure sites. We have all the possibilities to know where what is, Putin assured at a press conference in Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital.
Nobody shoots at us just like that, at random. Normally, this is done on the basis of intelligence data on the targets and with high-precision weapons, he continued.
I am convinced that this time everything was done exactly this way, said Putin.
Ukraine accused Russia of hitting and destroying a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, 330 kilometers southeast of Kiev on Monday, killing at least 18 people and leaving others missing.
The next day, the Russian army denied having targeted a civilian facility, assuring that it had bombed a nearby arms depot and that the shopping center was not in operation at the time.