21 injured after Russian attack on residential buildings in Ukrainian city of Kharkiv – The Denver Post

By SAMYA KULLAB

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched new attacks in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, hitting high-rise buildings and wounding at least 21 people in the second consecutive nighttime attack, authorities said.

The bombs fell on Saturday night on the Shevchenkivsky district, north of the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, said the city's governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Residential buildings were damaged to varying degrees, including 16- and 9-story buildings, he added. The Kharkiv city council said 18 buildings were damaged.

Among the injured was an 8-year-old child, said Syniehubov and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov. Terekhov said 60 residents had been evacuated from one of the buildings, a high-rise that was directly hit.

Kharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since Moscow began its large-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. Late Friday, 15 people, including children aged 10 and 12, were injured when Russian airstrikes hit three Kharkiv neighborhoods, Terekhov said.

Selenskyj calls for more weapons

Ukrainian officials said both attacks used KAB glide bombs, a modified Soviet weapon that has been ravaging eastern Ukraine for months.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called on Kyiv's Western allies to send more weapons to help “protect lives and ensure security.”

“Ukraine needs comprehensive long-range capabilities and we are working to convince our partners of this,” Zelensky said on X as he prepared to begin a busy week in the United States in which he will bolster support for Kyiv in the war.

And Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Sunday that Kyiv was in talks with European partners to acquire Swedish Gripen fighter jets and European Eurofighter Typhoon. Umerov said there were already commitments to supply American F-16 fighter jets and French Mirages fighter jets.

Russia sends drones and missiles to other parts of Ukraine

Russia also fired 80 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine on Sunday night, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ukrainian defense forces shot down 71 drones and six more were lost on the ground due to electronic warfare countermeasures, the statement said.

Further south, a 12-year-old girl and a woman died when a Russian drone hit a car in the town of Nikopol, local governor Serhii Lysak said. Two other people, including a 4-year-old child, were injured.

In the eastern Donetsk region, a Russian airstrike hit houses in the town of Sloviansk on Sunday morning, trapping a woman under rubble and injuring two of her neighbors, regional prosecutors said.

In the same province, two miners died and another person was injured late Saturday after Russian forces shelled a mine west of the town of Pokrovsk, local governor Vadym Filashkin and Ukraine's Energy Ministry reported.

Both Pokrovsk and Sloviansk are important targets for Russian forces as they continue their stubborn westward advance with the aim of capturing the entire industrial east of Ukraine.

In southern Ukraine, two civilians were injured in a Russian drone strike in the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, regional authorities said. Hours later, police reported that at least four more people had been injured in Russian attacks in other parts of the province.

Additional Russian drone strikes on Sunday damaged energy infrastructure in the central Ukrainian region of Poltava and the northern city of Shostka, officials reported.

Shostka is in the Sumy region, across the border from Russia's Kursk province – the target of a surprise Ukrainian military attack that began last month. Weeks after the attack began, Zelensky said the goal was to create a buffer zone to prevent further Russian border attacks, which have been wreaking havoc in Sumy for months.

Due to the intensified Russian attack, around 10,000 residents have left the nearby town of Hlukhiv; that is about a third of the pre-war population, the local military administration said on Sunday.

This affects almost 70 percent of the city's children after the regional government called for the evacuation of parts of the Sumy region closest to the Russian border. Hlukhiv is less than 15 kilometers from Russian territory and about 40 kilometers southeast of Shostka.

Ukrainian troops attack Russian targets

Also on Sunday, a firefighter was killed and two others injured by a Ukrainian drone in the Russian-occupied province of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.

In Russia itself, ten people were injured by Ukrainian artillery fire in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, including a village official and members of a volunteer self-defense force, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Several Russian regions, including Belgorod in the south, set up so-called territorial defense units to counter sabotage activities after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

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Originally published: September 22, 2024 at 02:41