On the evening of 19 September 2026, Russian military forces carried out a new strike on Dnipro, damaging the 'New Continent' shopping mall. This was reported by Alexander Ganza, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, and Oleh Lukashuk, head of the Dnipro Regional Military Administration. As of the evening of the same day, damage to warehouse facilities, retail spaces and multi-storey residential buildings had been recorded in the city, and the number of injured civilians had risen to three.
Timeline of events
The first official message about the attack appeared around 18:00: Alexander Ganza, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, reported that Russian occupiers had again struck Dnipro, noting that information on casualties was being established. Twenty minutes later, at 18:20, Oleh Lukashuk clarified the details: the enemy had hit the 'New Continent' shopping mall, where a fire broke out. At 18:33, Ganza confirmed that at least two people had been injured. Later, the number of casualties rose to three.
Casualties and nature of the damage
According to the regional administration, a 59-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman were injured in the attack. Both were hospitalized in a condition of moderate severity. A third casualty was recorded after the initial assessment. In addition to the shopping mall, warehouse facilities and multi-storey residential buildings were damaged in the city. The exact scale of the destruction was still being clarified at the time the data was published.
Official statements and appeals to citizens
In his address, Oleh Lukashuk described the incident as a continuation of Russia's 'usual tactics', which, in his words, deliberately targets businesses and enterprises. He urged citizens to be as attentive as possible to Air Force alerts and not to ignore air raid sirens. Alexander Ganza, for his part, emphasized that the attack is part of a series of strikes on the region's civilian infrastructure.
Context: a series of strikes on retail facilities
The attack on 'New Continent' was not the first recent strike on Ukraine's retail infrastructure. On the morning of 17 September, Russian military forces attacked a shopping mall in Kharkiv. Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported on the preparation of targeted strikes on major retail chains within the country. Thus, the strike on the Dnipro shopping mall fits into a sustained series of attacks on retail facilities, confirming the systematic nature of such actions.
Contradictory data
During coverage of the events in the first forty minutes after the attack, the number of casualties changed: initially two injured were reported, then the figure was revised upward to three. Differences in describing the scale of the damage are also traceable: initial reports were limited to noting the fire, whereas subsequent publications (in particular, Telegram channels and regional media outlets) describe the shopping mall as having burned almost completely. These discrepancies are explained by the real-time evolution of information and do not indicate contradictory accounts; however, an accurate assessment of the damage will only be possible after the rescue services have completed their work.
