Mykolaiv Epicentr destroyed: workers recount battle to save their store

By Yusuf İnan | Wise News Press

MYKOLIV, UKRAINE — Epicentr’s retail center in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, was destroyed by repeated Shahed drone strikes and fires despite employees’ efforts to save a workplace for 520 people, according to the company.

In an account published in NV’s Company News section on September 17, the company said 10 employees spent nearly a day trying to save the building. Staff described extinguishing fires, taking shelter when drones approached and returning when the immediate danger passed. Epicentr plans to replace the destroyed center with a larger shopping and entertainment complex, but the account gives no reopening date.

A workplace for 520 people

The center covered 42,000 square meters and employed 520 people, according to the company’s account. Some had worked there since it opened. Employees described friendships and shared routines built over years, with colleagues supporting one another through the disruption of wartime life.

For some staff, the destruction meant losing a workplace for the second time during the war. NV reported that employees had transferred to Mykolaiv from previously destroyed Epicentr facilities in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa. They had already moved and started again before the Mykolaiv center was hit.

Employee Liudmyla PIKHOTSKA had worked at the center for eight years. Visiting the building for the first time after the fire, she found burned metal, ash and structural debris where she had once worked alongside her colleagues. In the account published by NV, she described the loss in terms of the people who had filled the building:

“It hurts. Not because the walls are gone. But because the people are no longer here.”

Staff tackle four fires

According to the account, employees and visitors were evacuated to a shelter before staff returned to tackle the first fire once the immediate danger had passed. The company reported six hits on the center in one day and said employees extinguished four fires during their efforts to save it.

Epicentr’s deputy director for administrative and facilities operations in Mykolaiv, Vadym LARIONOV, climbed onto the roof after the first hit. He described concentrating on putting out the flames without delay. He wanted to save a workplace he had long regarded as a second home, NV reported.

While Larionov fought the roof fire, a firefighting unit from the center’s security service worked inside. The unit, led by Serhii ADABIR and assisted by shift supervisors, tackled flames within the building. The first drone had struck the central part of the retail center, according to the account.

Employees also shut off damaged pipes and tried to save equipment. Their work was repeatedly interrupted by the drone threat: when aircraft appeared over the city again, they took shelter, then returned to the building after the immediate danger passed.

More hits during the evening

The sequence published by NV describes two further hits in quick succession at about 18.00. Staff again moved to tackle the resulting fires. Epicentr department head Vladyslav SHAPOVALOV worked on flames in the outdoor area, while Larionov focused on the building’s facade.

Firefighters and rescue personnel joined the employees. According to the account, their combined efforts brought those fires under control. Another hit affected the furniture section, where the building’s fire suppression system activated.

By about 20.00, after the first four hits, employees believed the center could still be saved. Some areas continued to smolder, but the main fires had been extinguished, the company said. The next wave of drones interrupted that progress and started another fire in the furniture warehouse.

Drone threat interrupts firefighting

NV’s account says two more drones remained over the city as the warehouse burned. Staff and rescue personnel had to leave the fire scene and return to shelter. They were unable to resume their work for nearly half an hour.

During that interval, wind drove the flames farther into the building. When the teams returned, the fire had intensified and structural elements were beginning to collapse, according to the company’s description. The center that employees had spent hours trying to protect was ultimately lost.

Epicentr Mykolaiv retail center director Oleksandr DMYTRYSHYN said he believed the final hit had changed the outcome. In the account published by NV, he described how close the team felt it had come to saving the building:

“If it hadn’t been for the last hit, we would have saved the retail center. We really tried very hard.”

That assessment reflects Dmytryshyn’s account of events. The report does not include the findings of an independent technical investigation into how the fire spread or a detailed damage assessment.

Workers face uncertainty after the loss

Employee Yuliia MALIUTA had worked at Epicentr for a year and a half. She said she stayed at the site until midnight on the day of the attack and returned the following morning. Looking at the burned building, she described losing her job while supporting three children, the youngest aged five.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to do now. I’ve lost my job. I have three children.”

Maliuta said colleagues had supported one another and that she had considered the workplace a second family. Her account illustrates the uncertainty facing employees after the destruction. NV’s report does not establish the current employment status of all 520 people who worked at the center.

Dmytryshyn also shared news about the dog that had lived at the premises: an employee had taken it home. The director, who was 42 and had spent 20 years with Epicentr at the time of the account, described the animal’s rescue while standing near the damaged entrance.

According to NV, the arch over the main entrance was among the few recognizable parts of the center still standing. Around it lay the burned remains of the building where employees had worked and customers had shopped.

Rebuilding plans without a timetable

The company’s account also describes the center’s place in everyday life in Mykolaiv. Families visited with children, spent time in the cafe and bought goods for their homes. Some customers traveled from Kherson. Staff recalled it as a place where shopping and familiar routines offered a connection to life before the war.

Epicentr said it had decided to build a new, larger and more modern shopping and entertainment complex on the same site. The report does not give a construction start date, an investment budget or an expected opening date.

It also does not set out whether staff will transfer to other branches or what employment arrangements will apply while the site is rebuilt. For employees who described losing both their jobs and a close community of colleagues, the rebuilding decision leaves practical questions about when and how they might return to work.

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