Kryvyi Rih search enters fourth day as Russian strikes hit border crossing with Moldova

Rescue workers in Kryvyi Rih are now in the fourth day of a search operation after a Russian double-tap drone strike on a shopping centre on 21 August killed 16 people and injured 136, including 26 children. Three people – one of them a child – remain missing, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported on 24 August.

“The search is continuing uninterrupted: three people, including one child, are still considered missing,” the service said in a statement cited by Ukrainska Pravda. “There are 185 emergency workers and 42 pieces of equipment at the site of the tragedy.”

Eight sniffer dog teams from Sumy, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Dnipro have joined the effort, searching more than 1,000 square metres of the destroyed shopping centre. Workers have dismantled 1,900 square metres of damaged structures. As of the morning of 24 August, 49 of the injured remained hospitalised, 15 of them in serious or critical condition.

The attack – which Moscow has not commented on – fits a pattern of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s industrial south. Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly by missiles and drones since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Meanwhile, Russian forces struck again on the night of 24–25 August, this time targeting the Vynohradivka international road border crossing with Moldova. A Shahed drone damaged infrastructure at the crossing, causing a fire that firefighters brought under control, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported on 25 August.

“Russia attacked the Vynohradivka international road border crossing on the border with Moldova with Shahed attack drones last night,” the service said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The crossing has been temporarily closed, and traffic is being redirected to other checkpoints. The Moldovan side has been informed.

The Vynohradivka crossing is a key route for civilian traffic and trade between Ukraine and Moldova, including the breakaway Transnistrian region. Its closure – even temporary – could disrupt supply lines and complicate evacuation routes for civilians fleeing frontline areas in southern Ukraine. The choice of target suggests Moscow is deliberately seeking to degrade Ukraine’s logistical connections with its western neighbour.

On the battlefield, the Ukrainian General Staff reported on 25 August that Russian forces had lost 1,230 soldiers killed and wounded over the previous 24 hours. The total estimated Russian losses since 24 February 2022 now stand at approximately 1,479,300 personnel, according to Kyiv’s figures. The General Staff also reported the destruction of 48 artillery systems, 10 ground robotic systems, and 1,555 operational-tactical UAVs in the same period. These numbers, while not independently verified, are consistent with the intensity of recent fighting along the front line, particularly in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia sectors.

The twin strikes on Kryvyi Rih and Vynohradivka underscore a broader Russian tactic: hitting civilian infrastructure far from the front to strain Ukraine’s emergency services, disrupt transport links, and terrorise the population. While the daily loss figures give a sense of the grinding attrition on the battlefield, it is the civilian toll that continues to shape the war’s human cost. The search in Kryvyi Rih goes on, but for the families of the three still missing, the wait is agonising.