Attack on hardware store in Kharkiv shows Russia’s “madness”

The deadly attack by the Russian military on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday was “another expression of Russian madness,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Only madmen like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin are capable of killing and terrorizing people in such a heinous manner,” the Ukrainian head of state said in his daily video address on Saturday evening.

According to the regional civil defense, at least two people were killed and 33 injured in the attack.

Firefighters continued to fight their way into the destroyed building. Zelensky said there were about 200 people in the Epicentr hardware store at the time of the attack.

Zelensky again appealed to Ukraine’s supporters to provide more air defense systems.

While acknowledging that another Russian Su-25 fighter jet was shot down in the east of the country on Saturday, he said that if Ukraine “had more suitable, more modern air defense systems and aircraft, the Russian Air Force would of course have collapsed long ago, just like its Black Sea Fleet.”