Russia bombed a hardware store in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon, killing at least six people and wounding at least 40, Ukrainian authorities said. The attack was the latest in an ongoing bombing campaign against the city that has made life increasingly difficult and dangerous for civilians.
Kharkiv regional military governor Oleg Sinievbov said 16 people were still missing and the death toll could rise, adding that at least 14 people were wounded in a separate airstrike on Saturday in the center of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv.
“All day long Kharkiv has been under Russian terrorist attack. Air raids on the Kharkiv region have been ongoing for more than 12 hours,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Zelenskiy added that Saturday's attack underscores Ukraine's recent requests to its Western allies for air defense systems and other weaponry capable of shooting down Russian missiles and bomb-launching aircraft. “If Ukraine had adequate air defense systems and modern fighter jets, such a Russian attack would not have been possible,” he said.
Videos and photos posted online by Ukrainian authorities showed huge plumes of black smoke rising from the supermarket, where firefighters were busy trying to put out the blaze, which they said was covering more than 10,000 square metres.
Kharkiv, now home to 1.3 million people and located just 25 miles from the Russian border, has increasingly been the target of Russian airstrikes in recent months, a tactic Ukrainian officials and military experts say is intended to intimidate and sow panic among the population.
Saturday's attack came just two days after a missile slammed into a large book printing factory in the city, killing seven people and wounding 21. President Zelenskiy said 50,000 books were destroyed in a fire caused by the attack.
The attack on the printing plant sent shock waves across the country, with videos of charred bodies and piles of books reduced to ashes being shared online. Kharkiv is Ukraine's publishing capital, and many residents saw the bombing as further evidence that the Kremlin is trying to eradicate Ukrainian culture.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Saturday's attack, writing on “X,” the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that it was “unacceptable.”
Sinievbov said the Epicenter chain of hardware stores was hit in broaddaylight by two powerful airstrikes using what are known as glide bombs, capable of projectiles carrying hundreds of pounds of explosives in a single blast that can destroy a high-rise building.
Russia has primarily used bombs to destroy Ukrainian military positions on the front line and make it easier for its own troops to advance, a tactic that proved particularly effective during its capture of the eastern city of Avdiivka in February.
But since March, Moscow has also been using bombs targeting Kharkov, which are difficult for air defense systems to shoot down, leaving the population effectively helpless.
The only solution, according to Ukrainian authorities, is Yes, missiles. But the bombs are designed to travel tens of miles, allowing Russian fighter jets to launch them from inside Russia, far from Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems. And Western allies have banned Ukraine from firing Western-supplied long-range missiles at Russia.
“The shelling of Kharkiv, the death of people, children. This is their big strength. The regular use of bombs. This is their big strength,” Zelensky told The New York Times in an interview last week.
Ukraine's president has pressed Western allies to lift a ban on firing missiles at Russian territory and to send more F-16 fighter jets, capable of shooting down targets at greater distances, to Kiev.
“Do suitable weapons exist in the world to counter this? Yes. Do suitable weapons exist that are better than what Russia has? Yes. Does Ukraine have both elements – sufficient quantities and permission? No,” Zelensky said in the interview.