The six bodies are lined up under a canopy covered with advertising company logos. Her bare feet stick out from under a black plastic groundsheet.
Two of the bodies are covered in blood-caked dirt, horribly twisted and half-naked, a sign that the victims were caught in their sleep.
On Sunday night, the brand new Retroville shopping center on the north-western outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was hit by a Russian airstrike. At least eight people died according to the first official information.
The attack, most likely a missile attack, swept through the southern part of the huge mall at around 10:45 p.m., shaking the entire city.
“I was just minding my own business at home,” said local Vladimir. “My apartment shook from the force of the explosion. I thought the building would collapse,” he recalls.
Opened in early 2020, just before Covid struck, Retroville was the pride of locals – a temple of retail therapy with 250 stores, Western brands, a multiplex cinema and 3,000 parking spaces.
Ukrainian firefighters work amidst the rubble of the Retroville shopping center a day after it was shelled by Russian forces. Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty ImagesThis area of the suburb of Vinogradar used to consist entirely of market gardens and vineyards. Now ultra-modern gray skyscrapers have sprung up everywhere. Some are still free. Others aren’t even done yet.
Hardly a window survived the explosion around the destroyed shopping center. Shards of glass lie on the cobblestones at the foot of the 20-storey tenements.
The parking lot on the mall’s south side is a wreck of shredded cars, twisted metal, and treacherous sharp debris.
A Ukrainian soldier walks through rubble in front of the destroyed Retroville shopping center. Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Sportlife fitness center and swimming pool built over the parking lot have been reduced to a tangle of steel and dirty puddles. Chunks of Styrofoam insulation, disfigured by the fire, float in the murky water.
A handful of firefighters and soldiers scour the smoking debris of a 10-story building in search of more victims.
“The mall’s offices were there,” says a local, nodding at the building’s concrete shell. “Fortunately nobody was there at the time.”
Anyone surveying the desolate scene agrees that the attack on Retroville is the strongest to hit Kyiv since the Russian invasion began.
In the ruined mall, the once-gleaming floor is awash with water from burst pipes and the airy ceiling hangs in pieces from its frame. From the bowels of the complex, a security alarm still rings at a western hardware store.
Shopping center Retroville in Kyiv before the attack. Photo: ScreenshotAn Orthodox priest in a khaki cassock tries to make his way through the rubble, murmuring prayers and insults to the “Russian terrorists.” A soldier with a black scarf over his face approaches. “There are body parts over there,” he whispers to the priest.
Constantin, 22, was there when the explosion happened.
“It blew everything up. I don’t know if it was a rocket or a massive rocket. It went straight to the gym.”
The six bodies stretched out under the plastic sheet are all dressed in military uniforms. They could have been soldiers catching up on some sleep.
The remains of a huge engine block nearby, surrounded by jagged sheet metal from tank chassis, lend credibility to this theory.
As advancing Russian forces tighten their grip on Kyiv, it has become almost commonplace to come across camouflage vehicles, military equipment and anti-aircraft guns hidden in underground public garages.
Locals acknowledge that the Ukrainian army uses their territory as a base. Russian troops are only a few kilometers away in Irpin, which they have beaten beyond recognition and residents are awakened by the thunder of cannon fire this Monday morning.
Then the wailing of the sirens echoed through the capital.
“This is the biggest bomb that has hit the city so far,” says Dima Stepanienko. The 30-year-old says he was “thrown to the foot of the bed” by the blast that destroyed Retroville. “I’m scared,” he says, looking away.