Two people were killed and more than 20 injured after Russia bombed a hypermarket in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned today’s attack, which sent a huge column of black smoke into the sky, as “vile.”
Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said at least two people were killed and 24 wounded when “two Russian guided bombs hit a construction hypermarket” and “a fire broke out over more than 15,000 square meters.”
Videos posted by witnesses on social media show a huge column of black smoke rising into the sky from a fire at the Epitsentr store, located in a department store area next to a parking lot.
Around 200 people and 15 employees are believed to have been inside the Epitsentr hypermarket, which sells household and DIY items, at the time of the attack.
Two people were killed and more than 20 injured after Russia bombed a hypermarket in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, which sent a huge column of black smoke into the sky, as “vile.”
The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, is regularly attacked by Russian missiles and strikes on the city killed at least seven people on Thursday.
The latest attack came after Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10.
Ukraine said on Friday it had managed to stop Moscow’s advance and was fighting back.
“So far we know that there could be more than 200 people inside the hypermarket,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
“Russia dealt another brutal blow in our Kharkiv – in a construction hypermarket – on Saturday, right in the middle of the day,” Zelensky said.
“Only crazy people like Putin are capable of killing and terrorizing people in such a vile way,” he added.
‘There were many workers and shoppers inside. Now the fire is in the entire territory.’
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said that according to the store owner, they had lost contact with 15 store employees and that approximately 200 people were in the building at the time of the attacks.
‘We have a large number of missing people. There are many injured,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Firefighters work at the scene of a home goods shopping center hit by a Russian airstrike.
Russia currently occupies about 18 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, regularly comes under Russian missile attacks and attacks on the city killed at least seven people on Thursday.
“Apparently, the attack occurred in a shopping center where there were many people. This is pure terrorism.”
On Saturday, Russia shelled the village of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, a railway hub in the Kharkiv region near the border, wounding five people, the regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Two vehicles were attacked: a car with two passengers and an ambulance with a driver, a paramedic and a 64-year-old patient.
Russia also carried out airstrikes in the Kupiansk district, damaging a factory and residential buildings, prosecutors said.
In the eastern Donetsk region, shelling on Saturday killed a 40-year-old woman and wounded four, said the head of the regional administration, Vadym Filashkin.
Russian forces also claimed today that they had captured another village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian Defense Ministry said troops had “taken control of the village of Arkhangelske,” located north of the city of Donetsk.
The small frontline village is near the town of Ocheretyne, which Russia said it had captured earlier this month.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday that Russian forces were “particularly active” near the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
He said six shootings were taking place near the villages of Kalynove, Yasnobrodivka and Sokil, south of the village of Arkhangelske.
On Saturday, Ukraine said its forces had repelled two attacks in the Kharkiv region and that fighting continued near the town of Vovchansk, which Moscow is trying to take.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops had repulsed two counterattacks near the border, one near Vovchansk, which Moscow is trying to seize.