Russian forces attacked a busy DIY shop and building in a residential area of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, local authorities said.
Regional governor Oleh Shnievbov said on state television that two guided bombs hit a DIY supermarket in a residential area of the city, killing six people. 40 were wounded in the attack and 16 others were still missing.
At least two of the dead were store employees.
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said about 120 people were in the hardware store when the bomb went off.
“The attack was aimed at a shopping centre where many people were present and is clearly a terrorist attack,” Terekhov said.
Snyevbov said another missile attack earlier in the evening hit a home in the center of the city of 1.3 million people, wounding 18 people.
The missile left a crater several metres deep in the sidewalk at the base of the building, which also housed a post office, a hairdresser and a cafe.
Rescue workers evacuated residents of nearby apartments, some of whom had blood on their faces.
Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, is just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been the target of Russian attacks for weeks, including an incursion this month into the northern part of the Kharkiv region.
Andriy Khudinov, director of a suburban shopping centre, told local media that hardware stores were packed with shoppers buying items for their summer homes.
A huge plume of black smoke billowed into the air above the shopping center as firefighters battled numerous small fires, most of which were under control within 90 minutes.
Rescue workers, medical personnel and journalists rushed to flee the scenes of both attacks, taking to their stomachs, fearing a second attack, a common feature of recent Russian attacks.
Witnesses described panic at the shopping centre: “I was at work and we heard the first explosion and fell to the ground with my colleagues. Then there was a second explosion and we were covered in rubble. Then we started crawling to higher ground,” said Dmytro Syrotenko, 26, who suffered large cuts on his face.
Syrotenko told Reuters he and several colleagues were carried to safety by rescue workers who also helped other shoppers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, condemned the attack as “another example of Russian madness. There's no other way to describe it.”
“When we tell world leaders that Ukraine needs adequate air defenses, and we say we need truly decisive measures to protect our people so that Russian terrorists can't even get close to our borders, we are talking about not allowing attacks like this to happen,” he said.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians but its 27-month-long all-out invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead and wounded.