Russia turns its guns on Kiev, Kharkiv in new assault on Ukraine’s two largest cities
Russian forces have attacked Ukraine’s two largest cities with missile fragments falling on a suburban Kyiv apartment building and a guided bomb killing one person in Kharkiv.
A police officer (L) walks past destroyed cars at a damaged road after shelling in downtown Kyiv overnight. Explosions have been reported in several districts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, with rescuers extinguishing fires and helping the victims among the civilian population EPA/OLEG PETRASYUK
More than 28 months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces maintain regular attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as on energy infrastructure.
Attacks on Kyiv are less frequent than other cities, although the capital endured a series of assaults in March. Kharkiv has come under regular attack, but military analysts say the frequency has dipped since the United States authorised Ukrainian use of its weapons on certain Russian targets.
In Kyiv’s Obolon suburb, the local military administration said falling fragments from a Russian missile started a fire and damaged balconies on a 14-storey apartment building on Sunday.
Emergency services, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said five female residents were treated for stress, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 residents had been evacuated.
Emergency services posted a picture online showing at least four blackened balconies.
The head of the military administration of Kyiv region said missile fragments had also fallen outside the capital, causing injuries and damage, though no details were provided.
Russian forces were prevented from advancing on Kyiv in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion and were redeployed along the 1000km front line in the east.
In Kharkiv, which never fell into Russian hands in the early stages of the war, a guided bomb started a fire and killed a delivery service driver outside a depot on Sunday.
Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said nine people were injured, including an eight-month-old infant. Pictures posted online showed the depot and trucks outside it badly damaged.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a post on Telegram, said Russia had used more than 800 glide bombs on Ukrainian targets in the past week.
Glide bombs are heavy Soviet-era bombs fitted with precision guidance systems and launched from aircraft flying out of range of air defences.
The bombs weigh more than a tonne and blast targets to smithereens, leaving a huge crater.
Zelenskiy issued a fresh plea in his nightly video address for better weapons systems.
“The sooner the world helps us deal with the Russian combat aircraft launching these bombs, the sooner we can strike – justifiably strike – Russian military infrastructure… and the closer we will be to peace,” he said.
