Three killed, 34 injured as Russia strikes apartment block in Ukraine’s Kharkiv
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Firefighters and rescue workers responding to the scene of a Russian air strike on a residential building, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sept 24.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KYIV – Russia hit a high-rise apartment block and a bakery in Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv with guided bombs on Sept 24, killing at least three people and injuring 34 more, with others feared trapped under rubble, the authorities said.
Russian forces also launched a fresh attack further south on the city of Zaporizhzhia, the target of a series of strikes in recent days. Seven people were injured.
“The targets of the Russian bombs were an apartment building, a bakery and a stadium. In other words, the everyday life of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media platform X.
The strike took place just as world leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly.
Mr Zelensky, who was attending the gathering, said: “There is much discussion now at the UN General Assembly about collective efforts for security and the future. But we just need to stop the terror. To have security. To have a future.”
Images from the site showed a hole blown through the nine-storey apartment block, several floors of it totally destroyed. The building was hit directly, local officials said.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app that the building had already been attacked by Russia at the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“It was almost repaired, windows were installed, it was insulated, and prepared for the heating season. The enemy hit it a second time,” he said, adding that the section of the building that suffered most damage was housing 82 people.
A 17-year-old was among the injured and four other people were in a serious condition, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russia launched eight guided bombs, six of which hit Kharkiv, regional prosecutors said on Telegram.
The most densely populated area of the city was targeted, according to Mr Terekhov.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the surrounding region regularly come under Russian attacks. Moscow’s troops extensively use highly destructive guided bombs that Ukrainian air defences struggle to intercept.
Regional governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian forces also used guided bombs in their latest attack on Zaporizhzhia.
Several private homes were destroyed in the strike and four of the seven injured were in hospital. One person was killed in an overnight strike on the city.
Kyiv, which is pressing allies to allow deep strikes into Russia, says the most effective means of reducing the attacks is to target not the bombs themselves but planes and airfields hosting them.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, commenting on the Sept 24 deadly strikes, said: “We are counting on the courage to allow us to attack military targets in enemy territory with Western weapons. This is crucial to protect the people.”
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians, although it has killed thousands of them over the course of the more than 2½-year war. REUTERS
