Russian guided bombs hit Kharkiv apartment block, killing one

Russian guided bombs struck a residential building in Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring nine, including a six-year-old child, officials said.usnews
The attack follows Ukraine’s largest-ever drone assault on Moscow this week, which hit Gazprom‘s oil refinery and shut down all four city airports.npr
Russia has pledged “massive group strikes” on Ukraine in retaliation, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying the bombardments “will persist.”cnbc

Russia Strikes Kharkiv Apartment Block, Killing One and Injuring Nine

Russian guided bombs struck an apartment building in Kharkiv early Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring nine others, including a six-year-old child, as the cycle of aerial attacks between Moscow and Kyiv continues to intensify.

The Attack

The munitions hit a low-rise residential building in Kharkiv’s Kholodnohirskiy district in the early morning hours, according to an Associated Press report citing local officials. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, confirmed that five of the nine injured were hospitalized.usnews

In a separate incident Friday evening, a Russian drone struck a civilian vehicle in Kharkiv, killing a male passenger and injuring the female driver, Syniehubov said.usnews

Ukraine’s air force reported intercepting 92 of 99 Russian drones launched overnight, with seven reaching targets across three locations. In a concurrent claim, a Russian drone assault on an oil refinery in Tyumen, in Western Siberia, was thwarted by air defenses, according to regional Governor Alexander Moor.usnews

Escalating Aerial Exchanges

Saturday’s strike on Kharkiv comes amid a sharp escalation in cross-border aerial warfare. Earlier in the week, Ukraine launched approximately 200 drones against Moscow in what was described as its largest attack on the Russian capital since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The assault struck Gazprom’s Moscow Refinery, sending thick black smoke over the city and temporarily halting flights at all four Moscow airports.cnbc

Russia responded by pledging “massive group strikes” against Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the strikes on Ukrainian territory “will persist,” according to Russian news agencies.aljazeera

On Friday, Russian attacks killed three people across Ukraine, including an eight-year-old girl in Pavlohrad in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.aljazeera

Kharkiv Under Constant Threat

As Ukraine’s second-largest city, located roughly 30 kilometers from the Russian border, Kharkiv has endured relentless bombardment throughout the war. In March, a Russian missile killed at least 10 people, including two children, in a five-story residential building. The city was also struck during Russia’s largest-ever aerial attack in May, when 1,567 drones and 56 missiles targeted multiple Ukrainian cities in a single night.wikipedia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes on Russian territory as “fully justified” responses to attacks on civilians.npr