A Russian strike on a crowded DIY hardware store in Kharkiv has killed 14 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials say, the death toll rising as the country’s second-largest city reels from two attacks a day earlier.

Two guided bombs hit the Epicentr DIY hypermarket in a residential area of the city on Saturday afternoon, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on national television.

The strikes caused a massive fire which sent a column of thick, black smoke billowing hundreds of metres into the air.

Forty three people were injured, the local prosecutors’ office said, adding that 10 of the 14 dead had still not been identified.

According to reports, a 13-y/o was among those injured in attack in #Kharkiv on 25 May—the fourth child reportedly injured in attacks in Ukraine this week.

This is horrifying and unacceptable. Children and must always be protected. They are #NotATarget. pic.twitter.com/kRNeToq5NP

— UNICEF Ukraine (@UNICEF_UA) May 26, 2024

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said about 120 people had been in the hardware store when the bombs struck.

“The attack targeted the shopping centre, where there were many people – this is clearly terrorism,” Terekhov said.

In a post on the Telegram app, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 16 people were still missing after the strike.

The past week has seen an uptick in strikes on the city after Russian troops stormed across the border, opening a new front north of the city.

Russia has bombarded Kharkiv, which lies less than 30 kilometres from its border, throughout the war, having reached its outskirts in a failed bid to capture it in 2022.

The moment of the Russian airstrike on the #Kharkiv construction hypermarket on May 25.

According to the latest data, 14 people were killed. The number of casualties continues to rise, local authorities report. pic.twitter.com/QKBm7tlWm1

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) May 26, 2024

President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a plea to Ukraine’s Western allies to help boost air defences to keep the country’s cities safe. French President Emmanuel Macron, writing on social media platform X, denounced the attack on the store as “unacceptable.”

A separate early evening missile strike hit a residential building in the centre of the city of 1.3 million.

The number of people wounded by that strike had climbed to 25 by Sunday morning.

The missile left a crater several metres deep in the pavement at the foot of the building, which also housed a post office, a beauty salon and a cafe.

Emergency workers ushered away residents of nearby apartment buildings.

Some of the injured had blood on their faces.

Just over the border, in Russia’s Belgorod region, the regional governor said four residents died in Ukrainian attacks on Saturday.

Andriy Kudinov, director of the suburban shopping centre, told local media the hardware store was full of shoppers buying items for their summer cottages.

It took 16 hours to extinguish the fire at the centre, Interior Minister Klymenko said.

Rescuers, medics and journalists occasionally had to rush away from the scene of both strikes in the city and take cover on the ground, fearing another strike, as has occurred during several recent Russian attacks.

Dmytro Syrotenko, a 26-year-old employee of the DIY centre, described panicked scenes.

“I heard the first hit and … with my colleague, we fell to the ground,” said Syrotenko, who had a large gash on his face.

“There was the second hit and we were covered with debris.

“Then we started to crawl to the higher ground.”

Syrotenko told Reuters he was taken to safety by a rescue worker who helped him, several colleagues, and shoppers.

Zelensky, in his nightly video address, denounced the strike as “yet another example of Russian madness”.

“There is no other way to describe it,” he said.

“When we tell world leaders that Ukraine needs sufficient air defences, when we say we need real decisive measures to enable us to protect our people so that Russian terrorists cannot even approach our border, we are talking about not allowing strikes like this to happen.”

Writing later on Telegram, Zelensky noted air raid alerts had been in effect in Kharkiv for more than 12 hours and 200 emergency workers and 400 policemen remained at the scene dealing with the aftermath of the attacks.

Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and injured during its 27-month invasion of Ukraine.

-Reuters