Six killed and 97 injured in Russian airstrike on Kharkiv

Six people, including a baby, were killed and 97 were injured in Russian airstrikes on the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Friday.

Russian forces hit a 12-storey apartment block and a children’s playground, Terekhov said, adding that a fire had broken out in the building, killing several people, while a young girl was killed in the strike on the children’s playground. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quick to condemn the attack. “The Russian attack on Kharkiv was on ordinary people and houses,” he said.

He went on to remind the global community that Ukraine needed greater freedom to act if it was to bring a halt to Russian terror. “The Russians have struck using a glide bomb. This airstrike would not have happened if our Defence Forces had had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based.”

Zelensky added that Ukraine needed “bold decisions” from its partners, adding that there was no “rational reason to limit Ukraine’s defence”. “We need long-range capabilities. We need to implement air defence agreements for Ukraine. This is about saving lives,” Zelensky stressed.

These are not the only fatalities from airstrikes on the country in recent days, with Russian forces using missiles, including Kinzhal rockets, and Iranian-made Shahed drones in a massive aerial bombardment early on Tuesday that claimed two lives in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and three lives in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.