The death toll from a Russian attack on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 14 on Sunday, the regional governor said, as rescuers searched for bodies in the burnt wreckage.
Nearly 200 rescuers are at the scene, but Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleg Sinegbov said in a Telegram message that “the death toll has risen to 14.”
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said earlier that 43 people were injured and “16 people are believed to be missing” after Russian forces struck the Epitocenter supermarket on Saturday, sparking a massive fire.
“It took more than 16 hours to extinguish the fire that broke out at a construction hypermarket in Kharkiv due to an attack by Russian troops,” the minister said in Telegram.
Klimenko said forensic experts and investigators were continuing to identify the bodies at an abandoned shop on the city's northeastern outskirts.
Sinegbov had earlier said the two people who died worked at a hypermarket, adding that the city had been subject to “massive rocket attacks throughout the day”.
Still in his uniform, Lyubov, who works as a cleaner at the store, recalled how he managed to escape the building.
“It happened all of a sudden. I didn't understand it at first. Everything went dark and everything was falling on our heads,” she said.
“Thank goodness my phone lit up, the flashlight helped me know where to go, but everything in sight was already on fire.”
President Zelenskyy condemned the daytime attack, which he said was “clearly targeting civilians.”
“Only a madman like Putin could murder and terrorize people in such a despicable way,” he said, referring to the Russian president, who ordered the deployment of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia's state news agency TASS cited security sources as saying the missile attack on the hypermarket destroyed a “military warehouse and command post” inside the shopping centre.
– Call for a Peace Summit –
In a video message filmed on Sunday in front of the ruins of a publishing house that was bombed in Kharkiv last week, Zelenskiy called on U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to personally attend a peace summit planned for June in Switzerland.
“I appeal to world leaders: to the leader of the United States, President Biden, to the leader of China, President Xi Jinping: please support the Peace Summit with your personal leadership and participation,” Zelensky said.
A high-level conference on the war in Ukraine is scheduled to take place in Lucerne on June 15-16, hosted by the Swiss government at Ukraine's request.
Bern has invited 160 delegations, but Russia has said it will not attend.
“They haven't invited us,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month.
China has stated its support for an international peace conference recognized by both Russia and Ukraine.
“For Russia, burning is a pleasure,” Zelensky said in the message, referring to Russia's bombing of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles and guided bombs.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had fired a further 14 missiles and more than 30 attack drones at Ukraine overnight and on Sunday.
It said it had shot down all but two of the missiles.
Shrapnel from the downed drone injured three people and damaged homes and apartments in the central Vinnytsia region, local authorities said.
Sinegbov said there had been a new attack in Kharkiv city centre on Saturday evening, wounding 25 people in an area containing high-rise buildings and research institutes.
Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, lies just a few dozen kilometers from the border and is regularly hit by Russian missile attacks.
The latest attack came after Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10.
Ukraine announced Friday that it had successfully thwarted Moscow's advance and was fighting back.
Russia claimed on Sunday it had captured the village of Berestov in the Kharkiv region, which is on the eastern front near the Luhansk region.