Attacks kill four in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and three in Belgorod, Russia

Local authorities in Kharkiv say two missiles hit a construction materials hypermarket as part of a new Russian attack on the city.

At least seven people have been killed in separate attacks in Ukraine and Russia, officials say, as Moscow steps up its offensive in northeastern Ukraine.

Two Russian missiles hit a construction material hypermarket with around 200 people inside in the first attack on Saturday, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on his Telegram channel.

Four people were killed and at least 38 injured, Syniehubov said, adding that two of those killed were store employees and that a fire caused by the explosion was now under control.

“This attack on Kharkiv is yet another manifestation of Russian madness,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reacting to news of the attack. He highlighted that the target was not a military infrastructure, but one of the city’s largest commercial centers.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it does not attack civilian infrastructure. However, figures from the United Nations, Ukrainian authorities and aid groups have reported tens of thousands of civilian casualties since the Russian invasion began more than two years ago.

“I was at my workplace. I heard the first impact and… with my colleague, we fell to the ground. There was the second impact and we were covered in debris. Then we started crawling to higher ground,” witness Dmytro Syrotenko, who had a large cut on his face, told Reuters news agency.

Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said a second Russian attack took place in the city center, injuring at least 11 people.

Attacks in Belgorod

Later on Saturday, the governor of Russia’s southern Belgorod region said three people had been killed in two separate Ukrainian attacks in the area.

Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that a man and a woman were killed in the village of Oktyabrsky in a rocket attack and ten other people were injured. He added that a separate attack in the village of Dubovoye killed a woman who was working in her garden.

Gladkov said air defense units intercepted 15 aerial targets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously promised to establish a “security zone” in Kharkiv in response to what he calls Kyiv’s shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod. Russia frequently launches airstrikes into Ukraine from the Belgorod region.

Russian troops launched a cross-border attack on May 10 on the northeastern front of the Kharkiv region. That attack opened a new front in the war, in what Kyiv said was an effort to divert its outnumbered troops from the east, where the fiercest fighting is taking place.

Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is about 30 kilometers from the Russian border – has faced a wave of almost daily attacks that began months ago, as Russian forces advance on the country’s eastern front.

Most of the city’s energy infrastructure was severely damaged, and Kharkiv is still home to around 1.3 million people.

Although it is still far from the city, if Russian forces manage to control Kharkiv, it would test Kyiv’s morale, said Al Jazeera’s John Holman, reporting from the Ukrainian capital.

“If they manage to evacuate people and depopulate the city, it would be seen as a morale boost for Russia and a devastating blow for Ukraine,” Holman said.

In their messages about the attacks in Kharkiv, both Zelenskyy and Syniehubov took the opportunity to renew their call on Western allies to send more air defenses to protect the city.

“When we tell world leaders that Ukraine needs sufficient air protection, when we say that true determination is needed – so that we can protect the lives of our people in the most effective way,” the president said.

VIA AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES