The case regarding the attack on Epicenter in Kharkiv has been referred to court
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment with the court against five Russian military officials accused of organizing an airstrike on the “Epicenter” hypermarket in Kharkiv on May 25, 2024. Among the accused are four generals and a colonel, whose actions resulted in the deaths of 19 people and injuries to 46 others.
According to the investigation, Su-34 aircraft that took off from the Buturlinivka airfield in the Voronezh region dropped three D-30SN high-explosive bombs, each containing approximately 100 kg of explosive material, on the hypermarket. At the time of the attack, there were about 200 employees and shoppers inside.
Prosecutors from the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reconstructed the entire chain of events leading up to and during the strike and identified all those involved. During the investigation, 52 on-site inspections were conducted, 147 forensic examinations were performed, and more than 150 witnesses were interviewed.
The investigation established that the decision to carry out the attack was made by the commander of the “North” military group, after which the order passed through all levels of the military command—from the development of the plan to the issuance of combat orders and the launch of munitions by aircraft crews.
The total amount of damage caused exceeds 1.19 billion hryvnias, of which more than 860 million hryvnias represent environmental damage, and more than 330 million hryvnias represent material losses to the hypermarket.
Five Russian military commanders are accused of violating the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder committed by a group of persons acting in concert (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
“We have reconstructed the entire decision-making chain—from planning the strike to issuing the order. According to the investigation, the defendants were aware that the target was a civilian hypermarket in a residential area of Kharkiv, where approximately 200 people were present on a weekend. Evidence regarding the role of each of the five military commanders in the preparation and execution of this attack has been submitted to the court,” said the prosecutor of the Department for Procedural Guidance and Support of Public Prosecution within the Directorate for Combating Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict at the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor General
As a reminder, Russian troops attacked 54 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region over the past 24 hours, carrying out 979 strikes. Three people were killed as a result of the enemy shelling, and another 24 residents were wounded.
Russian forces struck a residential building in the Kyiv region, injuring five people.
In the Kherson region, one person was killed and 11 others were injured as a result of Russian strikes.
