Four people were killed and another 12 were injured in Russian drone strikes on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv overnight, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said on his Telegram channel on Thursday morning.
A Russian Shahed drone hit a 14-storey apartment building, destroying apartments over several floors and damaging the building’s façade, Terekhov said, adding that three of four people killed were first responders who had just arrived at the scene of the strike when another incoming drone struck the building.
“The Russians have once again committed terror against civilians,” Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov wrote on Telegram, specifying that in total at least 15 Russian drones had been launched at the city in a series of attacks throughout the night.
Across the border in Russia, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that air defence systems in the Belgorod and Tula regions had shot down five Ukrainian drones overnight, but gave no information about damage or casualties.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had used over 4,000 missiles, drones and guided aerial bombs to target Ukrainie in the past month alone.
Zelensky said that Kharkiv had been “hit by missiles and drones since the first day of this war,” and was now being targeted by guided aerial bombs. “None of this will happen once Ukraine receives reliable air defence systems that can save the lives of our people and return security to our cities,” he stressed, referring to the West’s foot-dragging on its pledges to help equip Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion.
