[14][15] Russian forces have previously struck at six other Epicentr shopping centers in Bucha, Nikopol, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv.

[16] At 00:35 and 00:47 on 25 May, Russian troops fired S-300 missiles at the Slobodsky district of Kharkiv and destroyed part of a lyceum, and also damaged 31 cars.

[17] At approximately 16:00, Russian forces struck the Kyivskyi District of Kharkiv with at least one UMPB D30-SN aerial bomb, allegedly from the Belgorod oblast of Russia.

[18] Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported that the missile strikes caused a fire covering 13,000 square metres that took 16 hours to fully put out.

[8] Russian state media cited a security source as saying, that a "military warehouse and command post" were set up in the shopping center and claimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were using "human shield tactics".