Macron says Russia can't win in Ukraine after strike on mall

France’s president has denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a “new war crime”

France's president denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a “new war crime” Tuesday and vowed the West's support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow “cannot and should not win" the war.

The strike, which killed at least 18 people in the central city of Kremenchuk, came as leaders from the Group of Seven nations met in Europe. It was part of an unusually intense barrage of Russian fire across Ukraine, including in the capital, Kyiv, that renewed international attention as the war drags on.

Speaking at the end of the G7 summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to address that concern, vowing that the seven leading industrialised democracies would support Ukraine and maintain sanctions against Russia “as long as necessary, and with the necessary intensity.”

“Russia cannot and should not win,” he said. He called Monday's attack on the mall “a new war crime.”

As they have in other attacks, Russian officials claimed the shopping centre was not the target.

In a virtual address to the U.N. Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has become a terrorist state and called for it to be expelled from the United Nations. He also urged the U.N. to establish an international tribunal to investigate Russia’s action in Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky ended his address by asking all in the chamber to stand in silent tribute to the “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian children and adults killed in the war. All council members rose, including Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky.