A Russian gliding bomb struck a home-improvement superstore in Kharkiv on Saturday, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more.
Fire swept through more than 10,000 square meters (108,000 square feet) of highly flammable items at the Epicentr store in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, according to the Interior Ministry. More than 200 people were believed to have been inside, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“This strike at Kharkiv is another example of madness and cannot be called otherwise,” Zelensky said in a video statement. “There were many workers and customers inside.”
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram on Sunday morning that the death toll had climbed.
Images on social media showed a large plume of black smoke rising from the store, which is part of a nationwide chain. Two strikes at the central part of the building happened minutes after an air raid alert sounded, according to the company that operates the Epicentr chain.
Another strike hit around a downtown park in Kharkiv and wounded 12 people, Syniehubov said on Saturday.
Zelensky reiterated his calls for more air defense systems for Ukraine and for Kharkiv in particular.
“Of course, if we had more adequate modern air defense systems and aircraft, the Russian air fleet would have already suffered the same collapse as their Black Sea fleet,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg singled out fighting in the Kharkiv region in urging alliance members on Friday to “lift some of the restrictions they have imposed on weapons donated to Ukraine” and allow them to be used to strike military targets in Russia.