UKRAINE, LOZOVA, Oct. 22 — Russian forces attacked the market in Lozova, a city in eastern Kharkiv oblast, with two Banderol missiles. The attack killed two women and injured 36 people. Two of the injured people suffered an acute stress reaction, and the other 35 were hospitalized, Serhii Zelenskyi, the head of the Lozova community, told Gwara Media.
Lozova is located more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Kharkiv. It’s a district center, so farmers and vendors from all the surrounding settlements visit the local market to trade in the morning.
That’s when it’s most crowded — and that’s when Russian troops hit it with missiles.
Gwara Media journalists worked at the impact site and talked to locals about the Russian attack.
Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv oblast, said that the killed women were 50 and 60 years old. According to the regional prosecutors, one missile fell without exploding, while another hit the market.
Mariia, an employee at one of the damaged stores, saw the first Banderol fall and said she was lucky it didn’t explode.
“I walked into the store and told the girls (other employees), ‘Let’s get our things and leave, because a second one will definitely hit.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” Mariia said, clearing away the debris from the counter, smashed by the blast wave.
“I hid under the refrigerator and survived,” Tetiana, another vendor, said. We talked to her as she helped Mariia with clean-up.
Both of them sell dairy. All the goods around them were covered in broken glass after the attack. Tetiana said that, while products that were stored in sturdy bags might still be saved, they’ll have to throw everything else.
There іs no shelter in the store. “If there’s a threat, we pray to God and hope it (Russian attack drone or missile) will fly right past us,” Tatiana said.
Serhii Zelenskyi said that Lozova has only one proper shelter — an underground school — and described the other shelters as more “basic,” adding that a list of their addresses is available online. The city plans to build five more underground schools.
When asked if the school can shelter all the people during the threat, he responded, “They have to go find a safe place. We warn all people in the community, including those on the market, about the threat of Russian attacks.”
He also said that the attack on the market wasn’t the first in the community this Thursday. In the morning, a Russian Shahed drone hit a house in one of the settlements here, killing a 42-year-old woman and injuring her child.
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