Zelenskiy in appeal over peace summit

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has released a desperate video plea calling on world leaders to attend a "peace summit" next month in Switzerland, after a deadly Russian attack on a DIY hypermarket in Kharkiv on Saturday killed at least 16 people and injured dozens more.

- Shaun Walker

Zelenskiy appealed in particular to the US president, Joe Biden, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to attend the summit, which is due to start on 15 June. "Please, show your leadership in advancing the peace - the real peace and not just a pause between the strikes," said Zelenskiy in English.

Biden has not yet confirmed his attendance and it is not known whether China will be there. "Negotiations are ongoing," Zelenskiy's aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview last week.

Saturday's strike came at the end of a week in which daily Russian missile and air strikes terrorised Ukraine's second city, with hits on a printing house, numerous residential areas and a central park, among other targets. In most cases, there were no obvious military targets nearby.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said about 120 people had been in the store on Saturday afternoon. "The attack targeted the shopping centre, where there were many people - this is clearly terrorism," he said.

Prosecutors said yesterday that at least 16 people had died, of whom 10 had not yet been identified, and 43 injured. More than 10 were still missing. A separate, early evening missile strike hit a residential building in the centre of the city, injuring 18 people, according to the regional governor.

In recent weeks, Moscow has been working to make life a misery in Kharkiv, 20 miles from the border with Russia. The city had a pre-war population of more than a million. Although life there goes on, strikes have become a daily feature.