The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office has released a video showing the moment a Russian airstrike hit a busy hypermarket in Kharkiv.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of May 25, at approximately 16:00, in the Kyiv district of Kharkiv. The target was the Epicenter construction hypermarket, which had over 200 people inside at the time.
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Following the explosion, a large fire broke out. The prosecutor's office has confirmed the deaths of two employees and reported that 25 people were injured. Additionally, ten employees remain unaccounted for as rescue operations continue.
The prosecutor's office has stated that the attack took place in a civilian area with no military facilities, describing it as a violation of the laws and customs of war under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.
The death toll from a Russian strike on a hardware superstore in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 14 on Sunday, the regional governor said, with President Volodymyr Zelensky condemning the attack as "vile".
"Russia struck another brutal blow at our Kharkiv -- at a construction hypermarket -- on Saturday, right in the middle of the day," Zelensky said.
"Only madmen like Putin are capable of killing and terrorising people in such a vile way," he said, referring to the Russian president who ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
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According to the Epicenter administration, an air alert was issued before the strike, but there was insufficient time to evacuate before two strikes hit the central part of the building.
Ukraine's rescue service posted images of firefighters spraying water inside the blazing Epitsentr store building, with the roof torn open and debris strewn around.
They said the fire had raged over an area of 10,000 square metres (108,000 square feet) but that the firefighters had managed to contain it.
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