At least 10 persons were dead and around 40 others were injured after a missile strike at a crowded shopping centre in central Ukraine’s Kremenchuk city.

Images from the scene showed giant flames of black smoke from the shopping mall engulfed in flames. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was “unimaginable,” citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside the shopping mall at the time of the attack.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will increase the strength of its rapid reaction force nearly eightfold to 300,000 troops, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

The US will provide an advanced air missile defence system to Ukraine, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirms on the sidelines of the G7 summit taking place in southern Germany.

Dmytro Lunin, the regional governor said it was unlikely many survivors would be found in the smouldering rubble, because "it was a big fire and there was a lot of smoke."