Russian strike on Kharkiv hardware store kills two: official

KYIV (AFP): A Russian strike on Saturday hit a store selling building materials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people, its mayor said.

“We know for sure about two dead,” Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, saying that according to preliminary information the strike hit a hypermarket for construction materials in a residential area.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said that “two Russian guided bombs hit a construction hypermarket” and “a fire broke out over 15,000 square meters.”

Videos posted by witnesses on social media showed a huge column of black smoke billowing into the sky from the Epitsentr store, located in an area of large stores beside a car park. The chain of hypermarkets sells household and DIY goods.

“We have a large number of people missing. There are many wounded,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

“Apparently, the attack was on a shopping center where there were many people — this is pure terrorism.”

The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, regularly comes under attack from Russian missiles.

Strikes on the city killed at least seven people on Thursday, local authorities said.

Russia launched a ground offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region on May 10, but Ukraine said Friday that it had managed to halt its progress.