Russia bombed a hardware supermarket in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon, killing at least six people and injuring at least 40 others, Ukrainian officials said. The attack is the latest in an ongoing bombing campaign against the city that has made life increasingly difficult and dangerous for civilians.
Ole Sinehupov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said that 16 people were still missing, indicating that the death toll may rise. He added that another airstrike on Saturday in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, wounded at least 14 people.
“Throughout the day, Kharkiv has been under Russian terrorist attacks. Air strikes in the Kharkiv region have lasted for more than 12 hours,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
Zelensky added that Saturday’s attack underscored Ukraine’s recent calls on Western allies to provide it with air defense systems and other weapons capable of shooting down Russian missiles and aircraft launching bombs. “If Ukraine had adequate air defense systems and modern fighter jets, Russia would not be able to launch such an attack,” he said.
Videos and photos posted online by Ukrainian officials showed firefighters scrambling to put out the blaze, which authorities said had spread over 10,000 square meters and sent black smoke billowing from the supermarket.
Kharkiv, which has a population of 1.3 million and is just 25 miles from the Russian border, has been increasingly targeted by Russian airstrikes in recent months in what Ukrainian officials and military experts say are designed to intimidate residents and create Panic tactics.
Saturday’s attack came two days after missiles struck a large book printing plant in the city, killing seven people and injuring 21 others.
The attack on the printing house shocked the country, with videos shared online showing charred bodies and piles of books reduced to ash. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s publishing center, and many citizens saw the airstrike as further evidence of the Kremlin’s attempt to eradicate Ukrainian culture.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Saturday’s attack, writing on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that it was “unacceptable.”
Mr Syniehubov said the hardware supermarket from the Epicentr chain was hit by two powerful aerial bombs at noon. The weapon, known as a glide bomb, can fire hundreds of pounds of explosives in a single blast and shatter multi-story buildings
Russia mainly uses these bombs to destroy positions on the Ukrainian front and facilitate the advance of its forces – a tactic that proved particularly successful when it captured the eastern city of Avdievka in February.
But since March, Moscow has also targeted Kharkov with bombs. They are difficult to shoot down by air defense systems, leaving people essentially helpless.
Ukrainian officials said the only solution was to shoot down the plane that launched the missile. missiles. But the bombs are designed to fly dozens of miles, allowing Russian warplanes to launch them from within Russia, well away from Ukrainian air defenses. Western allies have also banned Ukraine from firing Western-supplied long-range missiles at Russia.
“The shelling of Kharkov, all the deaths of people, children – that’s their huge advantage. The daily use of bombs – that’s their huge advantage,” Zelensky told The New York Times last week said.
The Ukrainian leader has pressured Western allies to lift a ban on firing missiles into Russian territory and increase the number of F-16 jets sent to Kiev, which can shoot down distant targets.
“Are there suitable weapons in the world to deal with it? Yes. Are there suitable weapons that are better than what is in the Russian arsenal? Yes. Does Ukraine have these two elements – sufficient quantities and permissions? No,” Zelian Ski said in the interview.
