Search and rescue teams have identified the bodies of 19 killed, including two children, in the Russian airstrike on a hardware store in Kharkiv over the weekend, Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko announced today, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
"This was not an easy job. The search for the dead was carried out around the clock in the ashes with special equipment, and they were promptly identified with the help of a DNA laboratory," said Klimenko.
Dogs were sent and residents filed 16 requests to find missing relatives, he added.
Russia has not commented on the case, but in principle maintains that it does not attack civilian objects in the more than two-year-old war, notes Reuters.
Kharkov has increasingly come under attack in recent weeks. On Saturday, Russia carried out a missile attack in the center of the northeastern Ukrainian city, in which 25 people were injured.
Ukraine is preparing for further actions of the enemy on the front lines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, quoted by Ukrinform and BTA.
Zelensky drew attention in his evening video address to the situation in the Pokrovsky and Kurakhovsky districts in the eastern Donetsk region and in Kupyansky and other districts in the neighboring Kharkiv region, to the north. He thanked the military units that are doing everything necessary to stabilize the situation at the front.
"We are also preparing for any further enemy activity - we clearly understand what tasks (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is setting for his army and for what purpose. We will answer him - for sure," Zelensky stressed.
In his video address, the Ukrainian president also accused Russia of pressuring countries not to participate next month in Switzerland in a high-level meeting dedicated to efforts to end the war, Reuters reported.
The agency notes that Zelensky wants at the forum on June 15 and 16 to create a front to put pressure on Russia and to confirm his "formula for peace", which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of the borders of Ukraine since 1991
"Nearly 100 countries and international organizations" are already part of the "global effort" to resolve the conflict, announced the Ukrainian president. He expressed confidence that "Russia will no longer be able to derail the summit, although it is making great efforts to do so.