Russia Targets Epicentr Stores Across Four Cities in Under 24 Hours

Russian forces targeted shopping centers belonging to the Epicentr retail network across Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, and Poltava in under 24 hours, company officials and regional authorities reported on Sunday, Oct. 25.

Head of Epicentr’s Public Relations Department Yuliia Chudnovets announced on Facebook that the commercial chain had been subjected to a coordinated sequence of aerial strikes across central, southern, and eastern Ukraine.

“Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Poltava. Again in less than 24 hours,” Chudnovets stated, characterizing the concerted bombardment as a campaign aimed at the total destruction of the retail network’s infrastructure.

The corporate statement follows Sunday morning strikes in Poltava, where a strike drone hit an Epicentr hypermarket building, igniting an immediate fire, causing structural damage, and injuring a 52-year-old woman, according to Poltava Regional Military Administration Head Vitalii Diakivnych.

Multi-city strikes and double-tap attack in Kharkiv

The targeting of the Poltava hypermarket forms part of a synchronized assault against commercial retail hubs across multiple regional centers.

In Kharkiv’s Osnovianskyi district, Russian munitions engaged commercial facilities in a double-tap attack. Initial reports indicate that Russian forces launched a missile at the commercial center, followed by a secondary strike within a minute of the first impact. The strikes wounded a 39-year-old man and ignited an extensive structural fire across the commercial premises.

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Concurrently over the weekend, strikes hit commercial trade facilities in Zaporizhzhia, damaging retail sites and adjacent vehicles, while infrastructure and residential quarters were engaged during a drone barrage across Vinnytsia region.

The coordinated wave against Epicentr centers coincided with broader strikes on commercial and municipal logistics, including the overnight destruction of an emergency fire-tanker truck in Kharkiv during secondary strikes on first responders and an attack on a warehouse in Lozova that killed a 45-year-old commercial employee.

Pattern of commercial retail interdiction

Ukrainian municipal authorities and retail operators have repeatedly emphasized that systematic standoff strikes directed against large-scale construction hypermarkets, civilian shopping hubs, and logistics warehouses serve no military objective.

Epicentr hypermarkets function as primary commercial centers for building supplies, consumer goods, and municipal repair materials utilized by local populations and utility services to restore homes and infrastructure following aerial bombardments.