UPDATE - Death toll from Russian airstrike on hypermarket in Ukraine’s Kharkiv rises to 14

REVISES HEADLINE AND LEDE; UPDATES WITH LATEST DEATH TOLL DECLARED BY KHARKIV GOVERNOR; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – The death toll from a Russian airstrike on a hypermarket in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday rose to 14, local authorities said on Sunday.

"The number of dead has increased to 14 people," Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov wrote on Telegram.

Earlier in the day, Synyehubov said 12 people were killed in the attack, which targeted a local hypermarket and damaged a furniture store and a shopping center. He claimed that the strike was carried out using two guided bombs.

He also reported that 25 people were injured and 12 buildings were damaged in another Russian attack on the same day, which struck Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a statement on Telegram that the attack on the hypermarket injured more than 43 people, and left 16 people missing.

Expressing that the strike caused a fire that spread to more than 13,000 square meters, Klymenko said it took more than 16 hours to extinguish.

“There is not a single district or street in Kharkiv that hasn’t suffered from this regular cruelty,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video speech recorded at the remains of a local printing house in Kharkiv that was destroyed in a missile strike on Thursday.

While Ukraine was defending itself 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of the city, Russia preparing for another offensive 90 kilometers (56 miles) northwest of the city, he said.

Zelenskyy went on to emphasize the importance of global efforts to end the war, specifically the upcoming Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland on June 15-16 and invited his US and Chinese counterparts to attend the event.

He added that the summit would show "who in the world really wants to end the war and not just claim the cease-fire which will inevitably be broken by Russian rockets and artillery just like it was dozens, dozens of times before."

On May 10, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces attempted to breach the country’s defenses in the Kharkiv region, opening a new front in the over two-year-long conflict that is concentrated in the country’s east and south.

Clashes in the region have intensified since then, particularly near Vovchansk, which is located about 74 kilometers (45 miles) from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Russia claims to have seized control of multiple border settlements since the start of its offensive on the Kharkiv front, as well as other fronts including Donetsk.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia is planning a similar assault in the northeastern Sumy region, which Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied.