Six hits in one day: Russians destroy Epitsentr DIY shopping centre in Mykolaiv

The Epitsentr home improvement superstore in Mykolaiv has been destroyed after being hit six times within a day, leaving 520 employees without jobs.

Source: Epitsentr

Details: Drone strikes on the shopping centre on Kherson road continued throughout 4 September. According to the company, after the first four strikes, employees and the State Emergency Service had almost extinguished the fire, with only smouldering areas remaining.

The situation changed after the sixth strike hit the centre's furniture warehouse. At that time, two more drones were circling over the city, so people and firefighters were unable to approach the fire for about half an hour. During that time, the fire spread across 42,000 square metres, while the wind drove the flames deeper into the building and the walls began to collapse.

"If it hadn't been for the final strike, we would have saved the shopping centre," said Oleksandr Dmytryshyn, the shopping centre's director.

A total of 520 employees have been left without work. According to the company, some of them had previously been transferred to Mykolaiv from the chain's destroyed and damaged facilities in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa.

Background:

• At the beginning of August, Epitsentr reported that it had lost ten completely destroyed shopping centres and another 13 damaged facilities, while estimating the losses caused by the full-scale war at more than US$1 billion. The chain has shrunk from 80 shopping centres at the end of 2021 to 70.
• The chain lost its previous shopping centre in July, when the Epitsentr in Sumy was destroyed by FPV and Molniya drones.

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