Zelensky said the daytime attack in his home town was carried out in “two waves”, with the second strike targeting emergency workers.
Dramatic footage verified by the BBC shows the second drone hitting the already burning shopping centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia’s military has not commented.
Another 130 people – including 23 children – were injured in the attack on city’s biggest mall. More people are also reported to be trapped in the rubble.
Early on Saturday Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said the death toll had reached 16 after another body was retrieved from the rubble.
There are still nine people – including two children – reportedly missing in the shopping centre, Hanzha said on Telegram.
Earlier on Friday, Hanzha said that of the 130 people injured, 29 were in a serious condition. There are fears the death toll could rise further.
Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions are being urgently deployed to help search for survivors.
Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the Russian drones were flying at “extremely low altitudes”, describing the attackers as “animals”.
“There are missing people who are not responding to calls,” the mayor added.
In Kyiv, the city’s military administration said a fire had broke out in a warehouse in the capital’s Darnytskyi district early on Saturday.
“According to preliminary information, unfortunately, there is one person dead and several injured,” the administration said on Telegram.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike had killed at least one man and injured four people, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.
