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.”
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS