A rocket attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, caused international outrage with scores of dead and injured. The G7 condemned the action as a “war crime”. The Kremlin struggles for explanations and – as in the attack on a maternity clinic in Mariupol – offers different and sometimes contradictory versions of its own propaganda:

First, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN claimed Dmitri Polyansky on Twitter on Monday, Kremenchuk has “a lot of inconsistency already” – the situation looks like a renewed “Ukrainian provocation a la Bucha”. Message: Russia has nothing to do with the case, Ukraine organized the attack.

The next day, Russia made a new statement and subsequently admitted the attack: Russian warplanes had fired “high-precision missiles” at a Western weapons and ammunition depot. Army spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the fire only started when they exploded in the “mall that is no longer in operation”.

This claim is also circulating on some pro-Russian Telegram channels, including Alina Lipp. He lives in Donetsk and runs a bilingual Telegram channel with almost 180,000 followers, which is constantly getting scammed attention. A screenshot from Google Maps should be proof that Google is showing the mall as “permanently closed”.

However, a number of evidence and circumstantial evidence suggest that the “Amstor” shopping center is indeed in operation.

• Advertising on the Internet: Until a few days or weeks ago, stores in “Amstor” were advertising for customers online or reporting on their activity there. For example, on June 24, menswear store “Town” posted a post on Facebook advertising men’s shirts and referencing the “Amstor” branch. An electronics retailer from Kremenchuk uploaded photos of his branch in the mall to the Google Maps map service in June, and supermarket chain “Silpo” also refers to the opening hours in the “Amstor” section of the branch’s website.
• eyewitnesses: Some local residents told reporters after the attack that the mall was open at the time of the attack. Many news organizations, including Reuters, interviewed victims of the attackBritish BBC reporters also spoke to customers and employees at the mall. A local Telegram channel posted details of missing persons who worked or shopped there on the day of the attack.
• Invoice: Some users post receipts from “Amstor” stores on social media with the date of the attack as evidence, for example: excitement or Telegram.
• Videos: The BBC shows screenshots of a video taken by a local resident on June 25 that shows shoppers and open stores in the mall. Another YouTube video, apparently recorded just the day before the attack, shows the mall operating normally.