There were two more people killed plus 33 wounded, per Kyiv Independent, during a Russian airstrike in an eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv on Saturday.
“The attack took place in broad daylight and this is obvious, it was directed at civilians,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy stated on Telegram that “As for now we know that over 200 people could be inside the hypermarket.”
The most recent attack followed Russia’s ground invasion in the region of Kharkiv, which started on May 10th with about 30 thousand soldiers involved.
Oleg Synegubov, Governor of Kharkiv Region, wrote on Instagram two days after the strike that last two dead and thirty three injured persons had been caused by bombing from two guided Russian missiles into a construction supermarket and subsequent fire covering an area of fifteen thousands sq. meters.
Meanwhile, through another telegram update later in the day, the office of prosecutor in Kharkiv stated that both men who died were workers in the hypermarket and confirmed other ten employees remain missing.
According to Ihor Klymenko (Minister of Internal Affairs), “Russia has deliberately bombed out civilian facility right in the middle of a weekend.”
While condemning this daylight raid upon our city we understand how much they are afraid or respect it: “Once again Russia has brutally attacked our Kharkov on a building materials market,” Zelensky spoke about it on X.
“All emergency services have already arrived at the scene where they provide assistance to rescuing people and extinguishing a fire that affected all premises — 10 thousand sq. m.” he noted. “It is known about deceased and injured people”, he added
Thus subsequently Zelenskyy also mentioned about Ukraine defence capabilities noting that if there would be enough air defence systems as well as modern combat aircrafts like these ones do not happen.
“If Ukraine had adequate air defence systems and modern combat aircraft, Russian strikes like this one could not be done against us. Hence, we address to all the leaders and all countries of the world – we need a radical reinforcement of air defense and sufficient capacity to destroy Russian terrorists”, said president of Ukraine.
“This is a task that must be accomplished and can only be accomplished together with the world. Every day, we call on the world to provide us with air defence and to save our people. Every unmade decision to support us results in the loss of our people,” he added.
From an unverified video posted on Zelenksy’s account shows thick black smoke rising from a fire at a hardware store,
To this effect, Russian forces regularly engage in ground shelling and aerial bombardment in Kharkiv Oblast’s populated areas which have led to civilian executions being perpetrated by Russian soldiers.
Russian forces have approached Kharkiv for two weeks now; initially during the war it had lost parts of this region to Russia before they were liberated. In their statement, Ukrainian public railways confirmed that there was an attack against them early morning. According to them six workers were hurt during that explosion.
This is why since 2022 when Moscow-Kiev war started, the US has been providing assistance to Ukraine as well. Earlier this month Antony Blinken made his surprise visit to Ukraine where he aimed at closer ties between our countries and reassured about America’s support for Kyiv during ongoing wars with Russia.
