UKRAINE, KHARKIV, May 27 — On the afternoon of May 25, Russian forces dropped two guided bombs [KAB] on a construction hypermarket in Kharkiv. Customers and employees were inside. A massive fire broke out at the hit site.
The firefighting operation lasted 16 hours and ended at 8:30 p.m. on May 25 — the fire spread to 13,500 м². Yevhen Vasylenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service (SES) in Kharkiv Oblast, told Gwara Media on May 26. The search operates today.
Vasylenko said that the security situation in the region complicated the rescuers’ work yesterday. Threats of Russian missiles disrupted the firefighting operation — after each air raid alarm, the SES employees had to stop work and go to the shelter.
Currently, there is information about 18 civilians killed, 48 injured, and 16 missing in a bombing of the Kharkiv hypermarket. A 12-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy are among the killed. Police officers have taken DNA samples from people who thought their relatives might have been in “Epicentr” during the attack. So far, 23 tests have been conducted, and there are already matches.
“Therefore, both the number of dead and the number of missing persons may change. This is not the final data. We will work until we are sure that everything is sorted out. This [the hypermarket inside — Gwara] looks like hell in a real sense. It’s hard to call it even terrorism, it’s something more than that. These are not humane acts.”” Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the Kharkiv regional police, told Gwara.
“There are two places where KABs exploded. And everything around them has been turned into hell.”
Yurii, an employee of the hypermarket who was at work at the time of the attack, says that after the explosions, he and his colleagues fell to the floor and saw a fire break out in the department behind him.
“We saw that the department behind us was already on fire; we got up and quickly ran to the exit. I managed to get out on my own; my partner was most likely killed. He is still missing. My head and hands were injured, but nothing serious,” Yurii said.
“The bodies of the victims are still buried under the rubble. Employees tried to get all the visitors out. Some of them died because they were leading people out,” said Oleksandr Lutsenko, head of the shopping center.
On the evening of May 25, the Russian army struck Kharkiv with S-300 missiles. One of the missiles damaged an educational institution in the Slobidskyi district. The missile attack damaged 16 cars and smashed nearly 100 windows in apartment buildings.
Also, during the same day, Russian troops attacked the Shevchenkivskyi district of the city with S-300 missiles, injuring 25 people. The Russians also damaged 12 buildings, including seven multi-storey buildings, a medical facility, a shop, six vehicles, non-residential buildings, and a research institute building;
On May 25, the Russian army attacked Central Park in Kharkiv as well. They hit near the sports ground. No people were injured
Russia attacks Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region a lot because of its proximity to the border. The strikes have intensified since May 10, after Russia started its new offensive north and northeast of the region. They destroy buildings in residential neighborhoods and critical infrastructure, kill and injure civilians.
Photo credits: Rescue operation at the hit site of the Russian attack in Kharkiv / Photo: Ivan Samoilov, Gwara Media
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- Russian army attacks towns and villages in Kharkiv Oblast, kills 9, injures over 40, including child
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