Russia launched a wave of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight on Saturday, damaging infrastructure and killing at least 10 people, including two children, in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting the country’s energy sector and railway infrastructure.
“There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” Zelensky said on the Telegram app.
“Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support should continue,” he added, urging allies to maintain supplies of air defence systems and weapons.
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 453 drones and 19 missiles, the air force said. However, nine missiles and 26 attack drones struck 22 locations across the country.
Ballistic missile hits residential building
The city of Kharkiv was targeted by both drones and missiles. Ten people, including two children, were killed after a Russian ballistic missile slammed into a five-storey residential building, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“When we arrived here 20 minutes after the explosion, I thought I was going to have a stroke. I couldn’t string two words together, and my legs were buckling,” Hanna, a resident of the destroyed building, told Reuters.
“It’s good that I wasn’t there with my child and that my father was with me. It was ordinary people who lived there. What were they targeting?”
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial complexes, military airfields and energy facilities, the Interfax news agency reported.
In Kharkiv, 15 people were also wounded and 19 residential buildings were damaged in the attack, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Commercial and administrative buildings, electricity distribution lines and vehicles were also hit.
In the capital Kyiv, three people were injured and heating was knocked out in 2,806 apartment buildings across four districts after Russian strikes hit an energy infrastructure facility, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
National grid operator Ukrenergo said emergency power cuts were introduced in seven regions following the attacks.
Ukrainian officials added that Russia also struck four railway stations and other railway infrastructure in central Ukraine, as well as port facilities in the southern Odesa region, where containers carrying vegetable oil caught fire and a grain warehouse was damaged.
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