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• The Russian defence ministry, supported by pro-Russian accounts on social networks, claims that the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk caught fire after strikes targeting nearby ammunition depots. According to Moscow, the centre was not "functional". Surveillance and satellite images contradict this version.
• According to several screenshots, the shopping centre had been closed for a year. But thanks to photos of receipts and videos, we were able to confirm that the centre was in fact functional and open to the public.

An attack destroyed a shopping centre in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine on June 27, killing at least 18 people and leaving about 40 more missing, according to the Ukrainian government.

According to Moscow, Russian shelling had targeted weapons storage areas nearby, rather than the centre.

The Russian ministry of defence released a statement regarding the attack on June 28. It did not dispute that Russia had fired missiles on Kremenchuk, nor that the Amstor shopping centre had been hit. However, it argued that the shopping centre was not functioning and had caught fire after the shelling of a nearby ammunition depot.

The statement was shared by the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom via Twitter, garnering more than 1,000 likes.

The image accompanying the tweet was produced by a website called WarOnFakes, which claims to expose false information published by Ukrainian media. However, French fact-checking media outlets have...

Read Full Story: https://observers.france24.com/en/europe/20220630-disputing-russia-s-claims-a...