DISINFO: Russian military hit a hangar full of weapons and ammunition in Kremenchuk
SUMMARY
The target of the Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk was a hangar with weapons and ammunition received from the US and European countries. The fire in the shopping center, which was not functioning, broke out due to detonations of ammunition stored in this hangar.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets claiming that Russian troops do not hit civilian objects during Moscow’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
There is ample evidence that it was Russian pilots who struck the shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk on 27 June 2022. 21 people were killed, 66 injured, including 26 people hospitalized. Ukraine’s Air Force Command established that X-22 missiles were fired from far-range Tu-22 M3 bombers in the skies over Russia. The bombers scrambled from an airfield in Russia’s Kaluga region and launched the missiles when they were flying over the Kursk region in Russia.
Russia’s Defence Ministry itself admitted targeting the city of Kremenchuk with a high-precision strike, although it said that a military object was hit. According to it, Western weapons detonated in the warehouse, which caused a fire at a nearby shopping mall that was closed. It is not true, because there was no military object with Western weapons near the shopping mall.
The Kremlin’s disinformation machine attempted to deny Russia’s fault in the bombing of a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, first calling it another “Bucha-like provocation” and then voicing various false claims. Read the full debunk at Myth Detector.
The EU also condemned the Russian missile attack as another heinous act.
Read more about the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.