Strikes on civilian objects in Kharkiv: how emergency services work

Days of mourning have become commonplace in Kharkiv. Constant rocket attacks by the Russians do not give people the opportunity to even mourn the dead. There are so many mass victims that journalists do not have time to record all the stories.

On May 27, the Russians launched an attack on the Kharkiv biscuit factory and an enterprise that produces agricultural machinery. As a result, a 47-year-old woman died, and 11 other people were injured.

On May 25, Russia hit the construction hypermarket “Epicentr”. As a result of this attack on civilians, at least 19 people died, more than 40 people were injured.

On May 23, due to Russian shelling, the printing house “Faktor-druk” burned down. Then seven workers died, 21 people were injured, and 50,000 books were destroyed.

On May 22, the Russians attacked the Oleksiivka housing estate. As a result of the shelling, the trolley bus driver lost his leg, and 10 other people were injured of varying severity. The chronology of Russia’s attack on the civilians of Kharkiv can be continued.

If earlier the people of Kharkiv explained the attacks on civilian objects in the city as the desire of the Russian Federation to sow panic among the citizens, now people have no doubt that the Russians are trying to turn Kharkiv into a depressed region and a wasteland.

Russian propaganda openly lies about strikes on civilians

Many stories of the dead remain unwritten: sometimes there are too many such people, sometimes relatives in a state of shock do not want to tell… Journalists try to ethically cover the stories of the victims of Russian attacks, hiding their faces in the footage and, for ethical reasons, not publishing photos of people’s bodies.

It is clear that the Russians use attacks on civilian objects for their own purposes, commenting on social networks and spreading another fake about the absence of civilian casualties and the basing of military personnel in the “Epicenter” or other buildings attacked by them.

Parishioners of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker died in the “Epicenter”.

Iryna Myronenko and her 12-year-old daughter Maria, parishioners of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, died as a result of the strikes of the Russian troops on the “Epicenter”. Iryna’s husband Yuriy survived and is currently in the hospital with burns. He tried to the last to get his relatives out of the burning supermarket building, but all attempts were in vain.

The parish to which the deceased belonged said that Iryna and Yuriy were the backbone of the parish, they often came to the church not only for Sunday services, but also on weekdays. “They were the ones who brought peace through children to our temple. They were very sincere and responsive. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they helped as volunteers here, at the temple, helped people, distributed humanitarian aid. They were the ones who always radiated peace and joy during these difficult times that we are currently going through” – this is how the church said about Iryna and Maria Myronenko.

An elderly man was looking for his disabled son who worked in a supermarket

As of May 28, it was known that at least two minors were among the dead in “Epicenter”. They are 12-year-old Maria and 17-year-old Kyrylo, who were identified by DNA analysis.

An elderly man came to the forensics tent to find out about his son, who worked in a hypermarket. According to his father, the boy had health problems: a sick heart.

Eight-year-old Mykhailo, who lost his father, came to submit DNA samples. It was thanks to the biological samples of this boy that forensic experts identified the body fragments of his father Alexander. The man was 38 years old. He worked in the decoration department of the Epicenter hypermarket and was at his workplace at the time of the Russian attack.

How specialists work at the Epicenter fire

Forensic scientist Maksym Shendryk, who works at the site of the hit, said that people come and submit their biological samples, which in the future help to identify the remains found at the fire.

According to him, the process of finding bodies is very difficult. Special equipment is constantly working at the site of the explosion. Specialists have to sift through the ashes to find human remains.

Rescuers of the State Emergency Service dismantle the rubble, risking their own lives, because new attacks are possible at any moment.

On the third day, only the remains are searched

Serhiy Rashevskyi, the head of the emergency and rescue unit for liquidation of the consequences of emergency situations, noted that almost 200 emergency workers were involved in the rescue operation.

“On the third day, taking into account the fact that there was high temperature and smoke in the building, we are looking for human remains. There are no living people there anymore,” he explained. Rescuers sift through a large amount of construction debris by hand and with shovels, trying to find even the smallest remains of burned people.

The President recorded an appeal to Western partners at the burned-down printing house

After the latest attacks by the Russian Federation on civilian objects in Kharkiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyi wrote an appeal to the leaders of the Western world at the ruins of the printing house “Faktor-druk” with a request to provide air defense equipment to protect the people of Kharkiv.

“For the Russians, it’s a pleasure to burn. We all know who we are dealing with. Russia is ruled by people who want to make it the norm to burn lives, destroy cities and villages, divide nations and erase national borders with war. There is no nation capable of stopping such a war on its own. The participation of world leaders is needed. I am in Kharkiv today. This city is in the East of Ukraine and, unfortunately, very close to the Russian border. What does this mean for Kharkiv? The third year of constant terror. More than a million people in this city. And every night, every day, the Russian army is shelling the city,” the Ukrainian president said in English.

The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration reported that from May 20 to 26, at least 30 local residents were killed in Kharkiv Region due to Russian shelling, 25 of the 30 who died as a result of strikes by the occupiers were victims of Russia’s attacks on Kharkiv.