In the latest attack attributed to Russian forces, casualties were reported in Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine. Officials said that at least one child died and a number of civilians were wounded as debris and fire spread through residential areas. Eyewitnesses described children and families trapped beneath rubble as emergency crews worked to reach them amid ongoing sirens and tremors from the blast.
Local authorities confirmed that two apartment blocks sustained heavy damage while a three-story residential building was rendered uninhabitable. Firefighters battled flames in the hours following the strike, and rescue teams continued to search for survivors as smoke hung in the air over the neighborhood. The incident underscored the vulnerability of civilian infrastructure during intensified hostilities in the region (source: Ukrainian authorities).
Leaders in Kharkiv expressed deep sorrow for the loss of life and pledged continued efforts to assist those affected. The city mayor emphasized that civilian facilities bore the brunt of the attack, calling attention to the human cost of the violence and urging national and international support for the affected residents (source: municipal office).
Reports emerged of a broader strike campaign, with initial descriptions indicating that more than a dozen people were killed in separate incidents within Kharkiv during the same barrage. Eyewitness accounts from Groza, a town within the Kharkiv region, described a cafeteria and a grocery store being hit as part of the same wave of attacks, raising alarms about the safety of civilian spaces such as schools, markets, and community centers (source: regional authorities).
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the assaults as savage crimes against Ukrainian civilians, while officials from the interior ministry stressed the tragedy’s scale for the country. Investigators noted that the current strike represents one of the deadliest episodes in the Kharkiv region since the February 2022 onset of the conflict, highlighting the ongoing devastation and the continuing threat to communities trying to rebuild (source: national leadership and prosecutors).