Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Sunday killed at least 11 people, said authorities in the border area facing a new offensive by Moscow’s forces.
Russian troops since May 10 have carried out a ground assault in the northeastern region, where they have achieved their largest territorial gains in the past 18 months.
Kyiv said it has stopped their progress — a claim contradicted by Moscow. Six people — including a pregnant woman — were killed on the outskirts of Kharkiv city by a missile attack launched from Russia’s territory of Belgorod, Ukrainian authorities said.
Photo: AP
Twenty-seven were wounded in the strike on a recreation center, with one employee missing, the prosecutors office said.
“Among the wounded is a police officer and an ambulance paramedic who came to help people after the first hit,” the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said.
It accused Russian forces of “once again using the tactic of ‘repeated strike’ ... aimed at killing civilians, law enforcement officers, medics, and rescuers.”
Russia has often been accused of using “double-tap” attacks, in which a second strike follows shortly after the first, increasing the chances of casualties among those responding to the initial incident.
Moscow insists it only targets military infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of using its weapons to “terrorize our cities and communities, to kill ordinary people.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed “two Patriots for Kharkiv, [which] will fundamentally change the situation,” referring to the sophisticated US-made air-defense system.
Shortly afterward, authorities reported another attack in the Kharkiv region.
“Five civilians were killed and nine injured as a result of shelling of Novoosynove and Kivsharivka villages with multiple rocket launchers,” Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said.
After launching increased aerial strikes, Russia carried out a ground assault in the border region on May 10.
It had mostly been under the control of Ukrainian forces that pushed back Moscow’s troops who had occupied the region between spring and autumn 2022.
However, Russian troops surged through defense lines on Friday, opening a new front with artillery and aircraft attacks, forcing thousands to flee.
In his evening address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said his forces had strengthened their defenses in the area.
“As a result of these days — of the whole week — we have secured stronger positions in the Kharkiv region,” he said.
Russian troops advanced between 5km and 10km along the northeastern border before they were halted by Ukrainian forces, Zelenskiy said on Friday.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian attacks in the Kharkiv area “slowed down a bit” on Sunday, but that forces “continue their attempts to break through our defences near Vovchansk, Starytsya and Lyptsi.”
Zelenskiy, in his evening address, said that “brutal Russian shelling and missile attacks, attacks with guided aerial bombs continue every day. Sumy region, Kharkiv region. Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv region, cities of Dnipropetrovsk region.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense, which had claimed to have seized Starytsya, said its units “continued to advance into the depth of the enemy’s defenses.”
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