Russian Strike on Ukraine Supermarket Kills 10, Wounds 35; Zelenskyy Vows 'Accountability For Terror'

A Russian missile strike hit a supermarket in the Ukrainian town located in the front-line Donetsk region on Friday, killing at least ten people and injuring 35 others, Ukrainian officials said.

The strike in Kostiantynivka caused a fire that had been put out, the interior minister said. Heavy black smoke clouds rising from the destroyed building could be seen in the images and videos posted by officials.

‘Russia will be held accountable’

“Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. Emergency services continued working out the rubble looking for survivors, he added. “Russia will be held accountable for this terror, and we will do our best to ensure that the world continues to stand with Ukraine in supporting our defense and saving the lives of our people.”

Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin initially said Russia used artillery but later said the attack with from an X-38 air-to-surface missile. Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal company, said its cargo office in the supermarket was damaged in the strike. “All our employees are alive. One colleague received a concussion – he is getting all the necessary help,” the company said on X.

Residential houses, shops and more than dozen cars were as well damaged in the attack, according to the interior minister’s post on Telegram. Kostiantynivka lies just about 13 kilometers from the active combat line in Ukraine’s east. Kyiv-held parts of the Donetsk region regularly come under Russian shelling and air strikes.

The region is one of the hottest areas of fighting as Russia targets areas in the direction of the strategic eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk. Meanwhile, Ukraine this week launched a cross-border assault in Russia’s Kursk region. Russia said Friday it was moving more troops and weapons to the western Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been mounting a major cross-border assault for four days.

Russia is moving army units with “BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trawls, heavy tracked vehicles, Ural and Kamaz trucks” to Kursk’s Sudzhansky District, the defence ministry was quoted as saying by state media.

(With agency inputs)