Infobae in Kiev: this is how the modern shopping center bombed by Putin was destroyed where at least 8 people died

There is almost nothing left of the new shopping center “Retroville”, located in the north-west of Kiev and bombed by Russian forces on Sunday night, an attack that left at least eight people dead, according to an interim official report.

Under an awning on which large advertising posters hang, six corpses lie on the ground with their bare feet sticking out of the black plastic with which they have been covered.

The bodies are all men with military equipment, and two are half-naked, suggesting that soldiers were probably sleeping there when the bombing.

At 22h45 local, a bombardment shook this suburb of the Ukrainian capital and destroyed both the building and the nearest surroundings.

“I was quietly at home, my apartment was shaken by the explosion, I thought the building was going to fall,” Vladimir, 76, recalls.

The Russians “were probably aiming at a thermal (electric) power station a few hundred meters away,” he said, pointing to a large white chimney on the horizon.

Pool and cinemas

Opened at the beginning of 2020, just before the covid-19 pandemic, “Retroville” was a temple of consumption, with its 250 stores, its western brands, its cinemas and its 3,000 parking spaces.

The entire southern part of the immense shopping complex, which was the pride of the inhabitants of the neighborhood, was devastated.

In this suburb of Vinogradar, where vineyards and orchards once flourished, in recent years ultramodern grayish towers emerged, some of which are not yet inhabited or even finished.

In the vicinity of the mall, almost no windows were spared from the explosion and broken glass covers the esplanades of the 20-storey buildings.

The southern car park of the “Retroville” now looks like a battlefield: pulverized vehicles, twisted scrap and debris that hinder passage.

From the sports club “Sportlife” and its pool there is literally a pile of steel and pools of dirty water, with molten pieces of insulating polyester. The environment gives off a burning smell.

Among the rubble, a group of firefighters and soldiers search for more victims, at the foot of a ten-storey building charred and still smoking of which only the concrete structure remains.

“They are the offices of the mall, fortunately, there was no one,” explains a neighbor.

According to the Russian army, the place was used as a warehouse for weapons and ammunition.

“A battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and a storage base for their ammunition were destroyed with long-range precision weapons on the night of March 21, in a shopping center that was not operational,” said the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“Rey David”

According to locals, tonight's bombing was the biggest in Kiev since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24.

Dima Stepanienko, 30, recounts that she fell “at the foot of the bed” with the explosion. “I'm afraid so,” he says, lowering his gaze, answering the question of whether the war will have reached Kiev.

Inside the mall, an alarm continues to sound in a scenario of water leaks due to the rupture of the pipes and an almost completely collapsed roof.

Among the ruins, an Orthodox priest dressed in khaki recites prayers, invokes “King David” and, incidentally, insults “Russian terrorists”.

“There are pieces of bodies there,” a soldier says discreetly, his face disguised by a black scarf.

“I was there when [the missile] fell,” says Constantin, 22. “It blew everything up, a missile or a huge rocket, we don't know what it was, it just hit the gym,” he adds tiredly, refusing to elaborate on the number or identity of the victims.

The remains of a huge engine block, embedded in the ground, and the characteristic remnants of green steel inevitably bring armored vehicles to mind.

With information from AFP

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