The death toll from a Russian attack on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 16 on Sunday, the regional governor said, as rescuers searched for bodies in the burnt wreckage.
“Unfortunately, 16 people have already been recorded dead,” Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleg Sinegbov said in a Telegram message. 43 were injured.
On Saturday, a Russian attack struck the Epito Center supermarket, sparking a massive fire that made it difficult to identify the dead.
Police said six of the dead had been identified, including a 12-year-old girl who was visiting the city, but several others were still missing.
Police had asked family members to provide DNA samples to help identify the body, which was found in an abandoned shop on the city's northeastern outskirts.
Sinegubov had previously said two of those who died worked at the hypermarket.
Video posted by police showed staff and shoppers inside the store before the explosion, followed by flying debris and darkness.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said in a Telegram message that it “took 16 hellish hours to put out” the ensuing fire.
Still in his uniform, Lyubov, who works as a cleaner at the store, recalled how he managed to escape the building when the fire broke out.
“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.
Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, lies just a few dozen kilometers from the border and is regularly hit by Russian missile attacks.
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 on Sunday, Zelenskiy stood in front of a publishing house that was blown up in Kharkiv last week and 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 said it supports an international peace conference recognized by both Russia and Ukraine.
“For Russia, burning is a pleasure,” Zelensky said in a message to the leaders, 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.
Sirens rang out in the Kharkiv region on Sunday afternoon, killing a 72-year-old woman and wounding two others, including a nine-year-old boy, in the village of Boguslavka, Sinegubov said.
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.