ISTANBUL

The death toll from a Russian airstrike on a hypermarket in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv last weekend rose to 19, authorities said Wednesday.

“(Nineteen) people died. 54 were injured. We will not forgive. Eternal memory of the dead. Condolences to family and friends,” Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram.

Later in the day, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed that search and rescue operations had been completed.

"The enemy is trying to justify strikes on a hypermarket, a printing shop, and other objects of civil infrastructure with sheer delusion,” said Klymenko. “We will beat the enemy even more fiercely. To victory.”

The airstrike Saturday, which was carried out using two guided bombs, according to authorities, targeted a local hypermarket and damaged a furniture store and a shopping center.

Klymenko said one day after the strike that it took more than 16 hours to extinguish a subsequent fire, which spread to more than 13,000 square meters (140,000 square feet).

“If Ukraine had sufficient air defense systems and modern combat aircraft, Russian strikes like this one would have been impossible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X on the day of the airstrike.

He described the strike as “another example of Russian madness.”

Russian authorities did not comment on the airstrike.​​​​​​​