Shopping mall attack sows fear far from Ukraine's frontlines

A couple wounded in a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Anna Voitenko

KREMENCHUK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Already displaced from the frontline region of Kharkiv that has been partially occupied since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alia Skrypka, 35, believed that Kremenchuk, more than 170 km from the nearest fighting, was safe.

But after a missile strike on a shopping mall killed at least 18 people in the central Ukrainian city on Monday, she is now considering whether she should move her two girls, Milla, 7 and Myroslava, 4, elsewhere - and perhaps even abroad.