.

The death toll in Russia’s attack on a Ukrainian shopping Centre in the central city of Kremenchuk has risen to 20 as the recovery and cleanup efforts continue, said Dmytro Lunin.

Lunin is the Governor of the Poltava region.

“More than 60 per cent of the rubble has been cleared,’’ Lunin wrote on the Telegram messaging service on Tuesday.

This happened a day after the missile struck and destroyed the complex, triggering a huge search and rescue operation.

According to the latest information from the authorities, 59 people were injured and several dozen remain missing.

A three-day mourning period was declared, said Kremenchuk mayor Vitaly Maletsky.

The management of the mall is under investigation for allegedly failing to heed an air raid alarm, which was why the building had not been evacuated, he said

Ukrainian prosecutors meanwhile said a war crimes investigation had been launched.

Moscow claimed that the real target of the attack was a warehouse with Western weapons located a little further north of the mall, but that its detonation triggered a fire at the mall.