At least 14 folks have now been confirmed killed in a Russian airstrike on a {hardware} superstore in jap Ukraine’s Kharkiv, the inside minister mentioned Sunday.
Igor Klymenko, Ukrainian inside minister, mentioned the fireplace within the Epitsentr superstore had unfold over 13,000 sq. meters and injured 43 others. Another 16 are nonetheless lacking, he mentioned Sunday.
“It took more than 16 hours to extinguish a fire in a Kharkiv construction hypermarket caused by targeted Russian strikes,” he mentioned on Telegram. “Russian shelling killed 14 people and injured 43 others.”
Forensics consultants and investigators have been nonetheless working to establish our bodies within the ruins of the Epitsentr DIY retailer on the northeastern outskirts of town, Klymenko mentioned.
Earlier, the Kharkiv area’s Gov. Oleg Synegubov mentioned two of the individuals who had been killed labored within the hypermarket, including that town had been beneath “massive rocket fire all day.”
Still sporting her uniform, Lyubov, a cleaner on the retailer, recalled how she escaped the constructing.
“It happened all of a sudden. We didn’t understand at first, everything went dark and everything started falling on our heads,” she mentioned.
“It was good that my phone lit up, thanks to the flashlight I found where to go, but in front of us everything was burning already.”
Zelenskyy condemned the daylight assault on an “obviously civilian” goal.
“Only madmen like Putin are capable of killing and terrorizing people in such a vile way,” he mentioned, referring to the Russian president, who ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia’s TASS state news company cited a safety supply claiming that the hypermarket missile strike destroyed a “military store and command post” contained in the procuring middle.
Peace summit name
On Sunday, Zelenskyy urged U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese chief Xi Jinping to personally attend a deliberate peace summit in June in Switzerland in a video message displaying him in entrance of the ruins of a publishing home bombed in Kharkiv final week.
“I am appealing to the leaders of the world … to President Biden, the leader of the United States, and to President Xi, the leader of China … Please support the peace summit with your personal leadership and participation,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
The high-level convention on the Ukraine battle is to be hosted in Lucerne June 15-16 by the Swiss authorities, which has mentioned it has invited 160 delegations however Russia won’t attend.
Biden has not confirmed his attendance and it’s not identified if China will attend.
Beijing has mentioned it helps a world peace convention acknowledged by each Russia and Ukraine.
For Russia, “it is a pleasure to burn,” Zelenskyy mentioned in his message, describing its bombardment of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles and guided aerial bombs.
Ukraine’s air pressure mentioned that in a single day into Sunday Russia launched one other 14 missiles and greater than 30 assault drones on Ukraine.
It mentioned it downed all however two of the missiles.
In the central Vinnytsia area, fragments from a downed drone wounded three folks and broken homes and blocks of flats, regional authorities mentioned.
On Saturday night, one other strike hit the middle of Kharkiv metropolis, wounding 25 in an space containing multi-story buildings and a analysis institute, Synegubov mentioned.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, is only a few dozen kilometers from the border and frequently comes beneath assault from Russian missiles.
The newest assaults got here after Russia launched a floor offensive within the Kharkiv area on May 10.
Ukraine mentioned Friday that it had managed to halt Moscow’s progress and was counterattacking.
Source: www.dailysabah.com