Seven people were killed and 16 others were wounded in a Russian air attack on Kharkiv, the country’s governor Oleg Sinegubov said, as quoted by the UNIAN agency.
According to preliminary data, the attack was carried out with S-300 missiles.
Sinegubov said at least 10 airstrikes hit the city, damaging several residential buildings, two trams and 11 cars.
According to the governor, Ukraine continues to evacuate residents of front-line settlements and the urban population. “A total of 10,980 people were evacuated from Chuguevski, Kharkiv, Bogoduhovski districts,” Sinegubov added.
According to the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, Russian troops attacked transport infrastructure, a private company and a division of a utility company that provides the life of the city. A fire broke out at the site of the explosions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 15 rockets were fired at the city.
“Extremely brutal Russian attack on Kharkiv and Lubotin – according to preliminary data, 15 missiles at once. Unfortunately, there are dead and injured. Emergency aid is already in the affected areas and everyone injured will be provided with the necessary help,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Zelensky, the Russian army is taking advantage of the fact that Ukraine does not have sufficient air defense and the ability to destroy launchers on Russian territory.
Russia is “advancing” in Ukraine by increasing its airstrikes against the city of Kharkiv and its surroundings in the northeastern part of the country, the Ukrainian president later wrote on the X social platform, quoted by AFP and Reuters. He blamed the “weakness” of the West. for the losses suffered by Kiev.
“This weakness is not ours, but the world’s, which does not dare to treat terrorists as they deserve,” added Zelensky.
At the same time, the Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznitsia said that some of its facilities had been destroyed by Russian airstrikes.
The company wrote on its Telegram channel that six of its employees were injured in an attack on civilian railway infrastructure.
From the beginning of April, Russia began a massive shelling of Kharkiv. Energy facilities were attacked, most of which were completely destroyed. On May 10, Russia opened a new front in the Kharkiv region. Within a few days, Russian troops captured at least eight settlements, approaching and entering Volchansk from the north.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the pace of Russian forces’ advance slowed significantly during the week of the offensive and they were able to advance no more than 8 km into Ukrainian territory.
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Sirsky, said on May 17 that the defense line in the Kharkiv region had not been breached, but that Russia had expanded the combat zone by almost 70 km and was trying to force Ukrainian forces to use reserve brigades. “There will be heavy fighting,” Sirski warned.
In late March, Meduza sources close to the Russian president’s administration said that after the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin “felt the weakness” of Ukraine. According to them, he is now “ready to go to victory”, including making another attempt to capture Kiev and Kharkiv.
The Russian army is in a position to capture Kharkiv, but a further advance into Ukraine is “difficult”, sources told the publication. “Symbolically, this is also a victory. A city with a population of one million, where there is a large Russian-speaking population,” noted one of them.
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