On Saturday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that there may have been over 200 people in the store at the time of the attack, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
"Russia once again brutally attacked our city of Kharkiv, this time they shelled a hardware store in the middle of the day," Zelensky wrote on Telegram condemning the Russian attack on a "clearly civilian" target. "Only madmen like Putin can kill and terrorize people in such a despicable way," the Ukrainian leader said.
"The air raid siren went off and some people managed to get out of the building, roughly 100 people. However, there were still people inside the building," Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said Saturday in an interview on national television.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the Russian attack on a hypermarket in Kharkiv "unacceptable." "France shares the pain of the Ukrainians and expresses its full commitment to cooperation," Macron wrote on social media platform X.
After Saturday’s attack, Zelensky reiterated that "if Ukraine had enough air defense systems and modern combat aircraft, such Russian strikes would have been impossible."
"That is why we are appealing to all leaders, to all states: we need a significant strengthening of air defense," he said.
(aj)
SOURCE: PAP