More than 1,000 people are believed to have been shopping and working at the Amstor mall in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine, when a Russian rocket landed a direct hit on the building at around 3:30 p.m. Monday, killing at least ten civilians and wounding many more.
Rabbi Shlomo Salamon, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Kremenchuk, says that he and his staff on the ground are manning the phones non-stop trying to ascertain the safety of community members. Salamon is currently in Israel and has been shuttling back and forth between his community in Kremenchuk and his family, who are riding out the war in Israel. “It’s a huge tragedy,” he tells Chabad.org. “This is a very busy mall, right near the train station. Kremenchuk was a relatively safe city; this is only the fourth hit we’ve had.”
The war in Ukraine hasn’t stopped Chabad from functioning in Kremenchuk; daily prayer services are held and regular Torah classes are well-attended at the Chabad center just over a mile away from the Amstor mall.
That sense of safety made Kremenchuk a destination for refugees from embattled cities like Kharkov, and Chabad has been providing aid for their Jewish community members, refugees and the broader community. Salamon reports that Chabad just distributed vouchers for essential groceries to many families to be redeemed at a supermarket located within the Amstor mall. “I’m hoping and praying that none of the recipients of those vouchers were out shopping this afternoon,” he says, still trying to phone everyone he can.
At the same time, Salamon has been in touch with city officials to offer aid and find out what he can do.
