A Russian gliding bomb struck a home improvement superstore in Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least two people and igniting a fast-moving blaze.
The fire, which has been partially extinguished, swept through over 10,000 square meters (108,000 sq feet) of highly flammable items, leaving at least 25 people wounded, Ukraine’s interior ministry said on its Telegram channel.
Images on social media showed a large plume of black smoke rising from the store, part of a nationwide chain.
At least 200 people were in the store at the time of the bombing and at least four haven’t responded to calls on their mobile phones, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.
Two strikes at the central part of the building happened minutes after an air raid alert sounded, said the company which operates the Epicentr chain in Ukraine.
Another strike was delivered on Saturday in the area of a park in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
“This strike at Kharkiv is another example of madness and cannot be called otherwise,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video statement published on Telegram. “There were many workers and customers inside.”
Zelenskyy reiterated his call for more air defense systems for Ukraine and for Kharkiv in particular.
“Had Ukraine have modern air defense systems and aviation, the Russian air force would have collapsed, as did their Black Sea fleet,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of NATO, specifically mentioned fighting in the Kharkiv region in urging alliance members on Friday to “lift some of the restrictions they have imposed on weapons donated to Ukraine” and allow them to be used to strike military targets in Russia.
Copyright (C) 2022, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
This story was originally published May 25, 2024, 2:32 PM.