Russia has hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with guided bombs, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The targets of the Russian bombs were an apartment building, a bakery, a stadium. In other words, the everyday life of ordinary people,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, posting a statement on X about the attack.
He posted a picture showing the facade of a nine-storey apartment block partially ripped off, the windows blown out and debris strewn across the street.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Ukraine’s second biggest city, said at least 34 people were injured.
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said many remained trapped.
“People are still trapped under the rubble. One of the multistorey buildings suffered a direct hit. The rescue operation continues,” he wrote on Telegram.
The northeastern city of Kharkiv lies about 30km (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been pounded by Russian aerial attacks throughout the two-and-a-half-year war.
Terekhov said that the nine-storey block had been attacked by Russia before.
“It was almost repaired, windows were installed, it was insulated, and prepared for the heating season. The enemy hit it a second time,” he said, adding that the section of the building that suffered most damage was home to 82 people.
In total, Russia launched eight guided bombs, six of which hit Kharkiv, according to regional prosecutors on Telegram. Ukrainian air defences struggle to intercept the highly destructive bombs.
Russian forces also launched a fresh attack on Zaporizhzhia, the southern city that has been targeted in a series of strikes in recent days. Seven people were injured.
Zaporizhia governor Ivan Fedorov also accused Russia of “hunting civilians” after a man was shot dead in a village by a first-person-view (FPV) Russian drone.
‘Stop the terror’
The Russian attacks came as world leaders, including the Ukrainian president, gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, discussing the wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.
“There is much discussion now at the UN General Assembly about collective efforts for security and the future,” said Zelenskyy. “But we just need to stop the terror. To have security. To have a future.”
Kyiv, which is pressing allies to allow it to use their weapons for deep strikes into Russia, says the most effective means of reducing the attacks is to target not the bombs themselves but planes and airfields hosting them.
“We are counting on the courage to allow us to attack military targets in enemy territory with Western weapons,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, commenting on Tuesday’s attacks.
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian soldiers drove Russian forces out of a processing plant in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv border region, which had been occupied for four months, according to a statement from Ukrainian military intelligence.
The plant, a partly steel structure with some 30 buildings, had been a Russian stronghold in the country’s northeast since Russia launched a new push in the area in May.
Ukraine’s incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces are holding ground, was launched in part to ease pressure in the northeast by forcing Russia to divert its forces.
