Rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors in the rubble of a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih after a double drone strike on Friday that killed at least 16 people and injured 130, including children.

The attack involved two drones that hit the busy centre in quick succession, causing a fire that covered about 9,000 square metres before being extinguished. Sixteen victims died, and four people remain missing. Rescue teams from seven other Ukrainian regions were deployed on Friday evening to assist. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the assault "cynical and despicable," noting that the second drone targeted emergency responders.

Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said the death toll rose to 16 after a body was recovered overnight and that the search could continue for another two days because of the scale of devastation and ongoing threats. He added that rescue operations were being accelerated. Military chief Oleksandr Vilkul reported that 52 injured people, including 14 children, remained in hospitals, and dozens had undergone surgery.

Ukrainian officials have not explained why air defence systems, which the military says intercept about 90% of drones, failed to stop the strike on the shopping centre. The defence ministry reported a 40% success rate for intercepting ballistic missiles. Kyiv says it is running low on Patriot missiles. In overnight exchanges, Ukrainian forces said they struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, causing a fire, and hit a Wildberries warehouse for the first time. Russian defence ministry said it downed 457 Ukrainian drones overnight. Two children and two adults were killed in a drone strike on a port town in Krasnodar, and two people were killed with 13 injured in air strikes in Belgorod.

The search operation is expected to last for two more days, and the incident underscores the continued targeting of civilian infrastructure amid the broader conflict that began with Russia’s full‑scale invasion in February 2022.