A day of mourning has been declared in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday, as rescuers and emergency teams wrap up their operations following a Russian bomb attack that killed at least six civilians, including a child in a playground.
At least 97 people were injured, including 24 children, when Moscow struck the city with five guided aerial bombs, according to Ukrainian authorities, in one of the most impactful Russian attacks on the region over the summer.
Among the dead was 14-year-old Sofia, who was in a playground when she was killed on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“These horrific, cowardly Russian strikes targeted ordinary homes and a city park. Russia will be held accountable for all its evil deeds,” Zelensky said, again pressing Western allies to step up their military support.
“We need decisions – decisions that our partners can make, decisions from those countries that have the power to ensure we have the capability to destroy Russian military aircraft at their bases, where eliminating these terrorists and their aircraft will be most effective,” he said on Friday.
Russian forces conducted the “massive bombardment” of the city using Su-34 fight jets that were deployed from the border Belgorod region, according to the head of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office, Oleksandr Filchakov.
The 500 kilogram (1,100 lb) guided aerial bombs were launched from Russian territory and are very difficult to intercept, according to Ukrainian officials.
“This is a bomb with a control module, which means that the enemy was specifically targeting residential infrastructure,” the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said Saturday.
Striking the airplanes that carry those bombs is the most effective way to prevent such attacks, Zelensky has argued, as he continues to urge the United States and Western partners to lift restrictions on using long-range weapons to hit military targets on Russian territory.
The guided aerial bombs hit civilian infrastructure in four districts of the city in the Friday afternoon attack, Filchakov said, adding that 82 apartment buildings, 11 private houses, three administrative buildings, two educational establishments, 47 shopping facilities, 57 cars, two warehouses, 10 garages and an enterprise facility were damaged.
Ukraine strikes Russia’s Belgorod
Meanwhile, Ukrainian attacks across the border into Russia continued on Saturday.
At least five people were killed and more than 50 injured across Russia’s Belgorod region over the last 24 hours, the regional governor said Saturday.
Most of the casualties occurred in the city of Belgorod, where three people were killed and 31 civilians, including three children, were injured. More than 20 people remained hospitalized on Saturday, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Civilian infrastructure across the region was damaged, he said.
Ukrainian attacks in Russia’s Kursk region also continued, Moscow said Saturday. Kyiv’s forces have made further advancements in their incursion into the border region, Ukraine’s army chief said Friday.
Kyiv’s troops have advanced up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) further in some areas over the past 24 hours, taking control of an additional 5 square kilometers of the territory, Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Friday.
In addition to the casualties in Kharkiv, Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory have killed at least three people and injured 16 over the past 24 hours, according to officials.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday that Russian forces had attacked Ukraine overnight with an Iskander-M ballistic missile launched from Voronezh region, four S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles launched from occupied parts of the Donetsk region, and 52 Shahed drones launched from Kursk region.