Russian guided bombs shattered an apartment building in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Saturday, killing three people, injuring 52 and prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to call for more help to deal with the growing threat of such weapons.
Pictures posted online showed parts of the five-storey apartment building in ruins, with windows smashed, balconies wrecked and rubble was strewn about a crater on the ground.
The casualty toll from the mid-afternoon attack in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region was reported as three dead and 52 injured, including three children, according to prosecutors.
Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov noted that four of the injured were in serious condition.
“This Russian terror through guided bombs must be stopped and can be stopped,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
“We need strong decisions from our partners to enable us to stop the Russian terrorists and Russian military aviation right where they are.”
In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy revealed that Russian forces had deployed more than 2,400 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets in June alone, with approximately 700 aimed at Kharkiv. He highlighted that after the delayed approval of a substantial aid package by the U.S.
Congress in April, the replenishment of Ukraine’s arms supplies had mitigated the devastation and frequency of missile attacks.
“The significant reduction in Russian missile terror against Kharkiv and the region shows that it is entirely possible to protect our cities and communities from Russian bombs,” he said.
He emphasised that Ukraine needed the promised military aid packages “without delay so that the agreements we reached with [U.S.] President Biden can be realized.”
This month, Ukraine and the U.S. signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defense against Russia and moving Ukraine closer to NATO membership.
Russia has increasingly relied on relatively inexpensive guided bombs, which can be dropped from a distance and pose fewer risks for its forces.
Since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has made slow advances through the Donetsk region in the east, capturing a series of villages after seizing the key industrial town of Avdiivka over three months ago.
Last month, it launched a cross-border incursion north of Kharkiv, although Zelenskiy says the situation there has now stabilized.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov confirmed that Kharkiv had been struck by four bombs in the latest attack.
Regional governor Syniehubov stated that rescue efforts were ongoing at the building, which had a store on the ground floor.
According to Kharkiv Police Chief Serhiy Bolvinov speaking to public broadcaster Suspilne, three floors collapsed in the recent attack, though he believed there were no individuals trapped under the rubble.
Kharkiv, situated approximately 30 km (20 miles) from the Russian border and home to 1.3 million people, has been a recurrent target of Russian assaults during nearly 28 months of conflict.
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