On Saturday, a devastating Russian attack using guided bombs targeted an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The strike resulted in the deaths of three individuals and left 52 others injured, including three children, according to officials.
Images shared online depicted the five-story building in ruins, with broken windows, damaged balconies, and debris scattered around a large crater.
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported that four of the injured were in serious condition.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, stating on Telegram, “This Russian terror through guided bombs must be stopped and can be stopped.”
Kharkiv is located approximately 30 km (20 miles) from the Russian border.
Following the incident, Zelenskiy appealed for additional assistance to counter the increasing threat posed by such weapons.
In his nightly video address, he revealed that Russian forces had deployed over 2,400 guided bombs against Ukrainian targets in June alone, with around 700 directed at Kharkiv.
Zelenskiy highlighted that after the US Congress approved a significant aid package in April, Ukraine’s replenished arms supplies had mitigated the damage and reduced the frequency of missile attacks.
He emphasized the urgency of receiving promised military aid packages “without delay so that the agreements we reached with President Biden can be realised.”
In other developments, the governor of the partially occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine reported that Russian attacks had killed five people and injured seven on Friday.
In the Russian-controlled part of the region, Moscow-installed governor Denis Pushilin stated that three people were killed and four wounded in Ukrainian shelling on Saturday morning.
These reports remain unverified.
Ukrainian attack drones targeted Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, after earlier drone strikes hit two of the town’s electric substations.
Initially, a station official reported no impact, but later, Russian management noted disruptions in some “infrastructure facilities,” including the transport department and print shop, though nuclear safety measures were unaffected.
A fresh wave of Russian missile and drone attacks damaged energy facilities in southeastern and western Ukraine on Saturday, injuring at least two energy workers and necessitating record electricity imports, officials reported.
National Grid operator Ukrenergo confirmed damage to equipment in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west during the second significant Russian air attack of the week.
The strikes also affected a gas infrastructure facility in the west, according to the energy ministry.
The Ukrainian navy indicated this was the first instance of Russian forces launching missiles from the Sea of Azov instead of the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s air defences intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force stated.
Meanwhile, Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones targeting the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said the regional governor, Alexander Bogomaz, on Sunday via Telegram.
Preliminary reports indicated no casualties or damage from the attack.
In a political controversy, Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, reiterated his stance that the West provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He refused to apologize, insisting he is not an “apologist or supporter of Putin.”
His comments drew sharp rebukes from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer, with Sunak stating it “plays into Putin’s hands” and Starmer calling it “disgraceful.”
Farage defended his position in the Telegraph, writing, “What I have been saying for the past 10 years is that the West has played into Putin’s hands.”
In France, prosecutors charged two Moldovans suspected of vandalizing the facade of a prominent Paris newspaper with painted coffins and slogans urging an end to the Ukraine war.
This incident is the latest in a series of similar acts in the capital in recent weeks.
