The first attack killed five people and injured 16 in a recreational area on the outskirts of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv:
Russian strikes killed at least 10 people, including a pregnant woman, and injured 25 others in two separate attacks in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region on Sunday, local officials said.
It was the latest in sustained attacks in recent weeks on the city of Kharkiv and the region of the same name by Russian missiles and guided bombs, as Russian troops launched an offensive in the northeast of the region.
The first attack on Sunday killed five people and injured 16 in a recreational area on the outskirts of Kharkiv, while another five people were killed and nine were injured later in the day in two villages in Kupiansk district.
Local governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces shelled two villages in the district with a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher.
In the city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov gave a count of deaths and injuries.
“The explosions heard in Kharkiv around midday occurred in a nearby suburb. Two Russian missiles hit a recreation center where people were relaxing, killing five people and injuring sixteen others,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters correspondents saw a recreation area destroyed after what rescuers at the scene said was a powerful explosion, followed by a second “double tap” attack about 15 to 20 minutes later.
The corpse of a man lay under the rubble of what, just over an hour earlier, had been a busy lakeside restaurant area on a sunny day. A woman stumbled in shock looking for her bag in the wreckage.
Valentyna, a 69-year-old woman who lived opposite the resort, was at home when the explosion occurred. Blood ran down her face as she cried, saying that her husband had died in the explosion.
He was near the water, she said, pointing to the area where there was now a crater on the shore, debris and dead bodies.
“Losing my husband, losing my home, losing everything in the world, it hurts, it hurts me,” she cried through tears.
“They (the Russians) are animals, why do they need to kill people,” she shouted.
ZELENSKI’S APPEAL
Following Sunday’s attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy again appealed to Western allies to provide Kiev with additional air defense systems to protect Kharkiv and other cities.
“The world can stop Russian terror – and to do so, the lack of political will among leaders must be overcome,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
“Two Patriots for Kharkiv will make a fundamental difference,” he said, referring to the Patriot missile defense systems. Air defense systems for other cities and sufficient support for soldiers on the front lines would guarantee Russia’s defeat, the president added.
Yaroslav Trofimko, police inspector of the Kharkiv police department, said about Sunday’s strike:
“There were never soldiers here… it was Sunday, people should be here to rest, children should be here, pregnant women, resting, enjoying a normal life.”
He arrived at the scene after the first explosion and was there when the second attack hit the same location about 20 minutes later.
Ukraine has frequently accused Russia of using “double tap” attacks to kill or injure emergency workers at the site of the strike’s impacts.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
