At least two dead, others missing after Russian attack on hardware store in Kharkiv

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At least two people were killed and 33 others injured after a Russian strike hit a major hardware store in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, officials said.

Eleven other people are still missing, all mall employees, according to authorities.

Authorities said there were nearly 200 people inside the building at the time of the strike.

“The air alert siren went off and a few people managed to get out of the building, around a hundred people. However, there were still people inside the building,” Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said in an interview on national television on Saturday.

“Specialized services intervene on site. All the injured receive assistance,” Syniehubov said earlier. “There is not a single military object nearby,” he added.

The two deceased men were employees of the hypermarket, said the head of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office, Oleksandr Filchakov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike a “brutal attack” in a post on X.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said “significant quantities of flammable materials” inside the hypermarket made fighting the fires “complicated”, adding that there was also a possibility that the The fire spread further to neighboring warehouses.

“At the same time, there is a constant threat of repeated enemy shelling,” Klymenko said.

The attack comes as Russian forces continue to advance in the Kharkiv region after crossing the northern border earlier this month and opening a new front in the conflict.

Seven people were killed in Russian strikes on the city on Thursday, after locations including a printing plant were targeted.

After Saturday's attack, Zelensky reiterated that “if Ukraine had enough modern air defense systems and combat aircraft, such Russian strikes would have been impossible.”

“This is why we appeal to all leaders, to all states: we need a significant strengthening of air defense,” he said.

“This is a task that must be accomplished and can only be accomplished in collaboration with the entire world. Every day we call on the world: give us air defense, save people. Every refused support decision means the loss of our people,” Zelensky added.

Elsewhere, at least two people were killed and at least ten others injured following a Ukrainian strike against a Russian village in the Belgorod region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday.

Among the injured was an 8-year-old boy, he said, adding that “all the victims had shrapnel wounds in various parts of the body.”

As a result of the strike, a private residential building caught fire and around 20 other buildings and 23 cars were damaged. “All operational services are working on site,” Gladkov said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.