Russia Hits Epicentr K Mall in Kropyvnytskyi, 2 Injured

A Russian attack hit an Epicentr K shopping center in Kropyvnytskyi on Tuesday morning, injuring two people and adding to a string of strikes on Ukraine’s largest home improvement retailer since the summer. The chain has reported damage to its facilities in at least 13 other cities in recent months, including the loss of its last major logistics hub in October.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The State Emergency Service wrote that the first attack set a car ablaze in a parking lot and injured two people. A repeat strike then started a fire at a civilian infrastructure facility, according to the service. Information on casualties is being clarified, and the service’s psychologists are assisting those at the scene. “Rescuers are currently working to eliminate [the fire]. The work is complicated by the constant threat of repeated shelling,” the State Emergency Service wrote in its press release. Founded by Oleksandr and Halyna Hereha in 2003 with the opening of their first home improvement store in Kyiv, Epicentr K has grown into a major national retail network. The chain currently operates 72 shopping centers across Ukraine, with a total retail area of more than 2 million square meters (21.5 million square feet) and around 38,000 employees. According to financial statements registered in YouControl, the company generated Hr. 81.2 billion ($1.8 billion) in 2025. The attack extends a campaign that has cost Epicentr its last major logistics hub and put jobs at a company with about 38,000 employees at risk. Other Topics of Interest Russian Drone Attack Kills 2 in Western Ukraine’s Ladyzhyn Local authorities have declared three days of mourning. The assault intensified in August when Russia refocused its ballistic missile and drone strikes towards Ukraine’s largest retail, logistics and metallurgy companies. A Russian strike destroyed an Epicentr shopping center in a residential district of Zaporizhzhia on Aug. 12, causing a massive fire. In September, six strikes in 24 hours, starting Sept. 4, destroyed a mall in Mykolaiv, where flames engulfed 42,000 square meters (452,000 square feet) while firefighters sheltered from circling drones for about 30 minutes. The attack left 520 employees without work, many of them already relocated from sites in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa that earlier Russian attacks had destroyed or damaged. Later in October, Russian forces hit the company’s distribution center in Khmelnytskyi 10 times, destroying about 85% of the stored goods and igniting five major fires, Epicentr K wrote. The company said the facility was its last major operational warehouse complex, as its main hubs near Kyiv had been destroyed earlier in the war. The same week, strikes hit a Chernihiv shopping center the company rebuilt after its destruction in 2022, and one in Dnipro that had operated for almost 20 years. Russian forces intensified the shelling in late October, hitting Epicentr K facilities across Ukraine in a 48-hour wave of strikes. A ballistic attack destroyed a Kyiv hypermarket overnight Oct. 21, and the Kharkiv mall was destroyed on Oct. 24. By Oct. 26, the company reported damage in Uman, Pervomaisk, Dubno, where three people were injured, and Kovel. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.