Is it true that the shopping center in Kremenchug closed a few months before the missile strike?

On June 27, 2022, Russian troops struck winged missiles in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchug, while destroying the Amstor shopping center. In response, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said that this “empty” shopping center has not functioned for a long time. We checked if it was true.

June 28, the day after the missile strike, the Ministry of Defense of Russia It performed With the official version of the incident: "The detonation of the stored ammunition to Western weapons caused a fire in a non -functioning shopping center located near the territory of the plant." On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reportersthat the shopping center was supposedly empty. This version was picked up by dozens of Russian Media and Telegram-channelsAlong the way, accusing Ukraine of the factory of fakes about the dead civilians.

This article is not about where the Russian shells got and what the fire provoked. We only figure out whether the shopping center worked on the day of shelling.

The fact that the shopping center "Amstor" has not worked since March 2022, for the first time wrote Russian Telegram channel “War with Fakes”-five hours after shelling. Moreover, at the beginning of the post, the authors only make an assumption: “It is unlikely that the shopping center was generally working. <...> Apparently, the shopping center was kept in a technique repaired on Dormash. " And a few paragraphs later the same information is submitted as a proven fact: “Shopping Center Amstor” has not worked since March, was used as a warehouse of equipment that was repaired at the Dormash plant and taken through the Kremenchug station. ”

As evidence, the “War with Fakes” channel used four arguments:

1. On the video, laid out President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, parking in front of the shopping center building is almost empty;
2. There are many military people in the parking lot, while there are practically no women;
3. On the Instagram on the Geota "Amstor" there are no photos of visitors over the past three months (since March);
4. The reviews on the Internet and Google maps were also stopped leaving in March.

The failure of each of the above arguments is easy to refute using logic, as well as photo and video materials from social networks.

1. Parking in front of the shopping center building is almost empty

On video, which used the “War with Fakes” channel, is really visible only a few cars in the parking lot. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the shopping center was closed. Firstly, on photo With Google Maps, you can find photos of a working shopping center with different parking lots. For example, in these two pictures (for April And June 2020) The area in front of the shopping center looks even more deserted than June 27, 2022.

Secondly, the video was shot some time after the explosion, when firefighters and rescuers had already arrived and start work. Probably, by this moment, most visitors left smoky parking. On video Immediately after the explosion it is clear how visitors get in their cars and leave. Therefore, there is nothing suspicious that the parking of the shopping center covered by the fire during air anxiety at some point was empty.

2. There are many military people in the parking lot, while there are practically no women

In the video, we managed to count six men in military uniform, but this does not prove that the shopping center has long turned into a military facility. Do not forget that in Ukraine acts martial law, and the city of Kremenchug has been over a month subjected bombing. In such conditions, the presence of several military on the streets of the city is not surprising as the fact that they arrived at the place of a missile blow to help rescuers and victims.

Women at the scene of the incident were still, what can be seen by looking video "Where are the women running from the shopping center?" Blogger Anatoly Sharia. More women can see In the intensive care unit, where they were brought with injuries and burns.

3. On the Instagram on the geotag "Amstor" there are no photos of visitors over the past three months (since March)

We managed to find not only fresh Instagram-posts With the Astor geotag, but also a lot of photographs from Amstor, published in other social networks by both visitors and shops of the shopping center.

• The user Marinadoohova published videoRelieved June 25. The footage shows that the Amstor is open, people enter it, and dozens of cars in the parking lot.
• Town Kremenchuk clothing store May 19 Published Video of the new flow of clothes and invited him to his boutique in Amstor.
• Throughout May and June the Silpo supermarket almost every week Published A list of promotional goods that “waited for buyers on the shelves” of the store. And June 10 invited Come for cupcakes to the Day of the Holy Trinity.
• Users published Checks And price tags From Amstor, printed on June 27 a few hours before the raid.

4. Reviews on the Internet and Google maps were also stopped leaving in March

The freshest reviews About the work of Moscow GUM on Google Maps were also made in March 2022. But this does not mean that GUM is closed and used as a warehouse of military equipment. By information The fact of the Telegram channel “War with the war with fakes”, with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Google has ceased to publish reviews about locations in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

In addition, we found a lot publications employees And visitors The center, which at the time of the explosion were in the building. For example, Telegram channel "Support Service" Published The story of Natalia Yudina, an employee of the pharmacy who described the moment of the explosion and the followed chaos: “Every alarm, when my colleagues did not want to go out, I said:“ Imagine, one day we will come out and this will save our life. ” During the first alarm on June 27, Natalia left the building, and during the second, she still continued the diagnosis of the client. At the end of the story, Natalia wrote: “Everything that remains of my work is a bathrobe, everything else burned down.”

The Channel "Present" also took interview several victims, and Bild correspondents were removed plot From the hospital where the wounded were delivered.

Soon after the explosion, they began to appear on the network requests Help find people who disappeared during the fire. Zerna coffee company Published Photos of her 19-year-old employee and asked to help her parents with the means of treatment. Comfy store He called it On June 27, “Black Day” in the history of Ukraine and “Comfy Family”: among the employees who worked on that day in the store, one died, five were injured, and the nine have not yet been found (for example, the husband of Sabina Gritsai Eugene). By official data, more than 20 people died, 59 were injured and more than 40 were missing.

June 28 Mayor Kremenchug Vitaly Maletsky wrotethat a few days before the explosion, the administration of the Amstor shopping center decided not to close the complex during air anxiety, as evidenced message Administration to employees of the shopping center. About this violation of safety rules Wrote Many Russian media: "Since June 23, the shopping center in Kremenchug has not closed during air anxiety." How these headlines are combined with statements The same media that the shopping center was closed for a long time and did not function on the day of shelling was incomprehensible. Apparently, this detail confuses them no more than a lot of fake refutations about the "empty" shopping center.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Image on the cover: Viacheslav Pradko / AP

Read on the topic:

1. Bellingcat. Russia’s Kremenchuk Claims Versus The Evidence
2. Meduza. What actually happened in Kremenchug
3. BBC. BBC Facts: A missile blow to the Kremenchug shopping center
4. "Mediazone." People at hot blocks
5. Is it true that the Ukrainians falsified the report on the shelling of the maternity hospital in Mariupol?
6. Is it true that a video with the Ukrainian military, laying corpses in Buch, got into the network?