At least six people were killed and sixteen injured on Wednesday in a Russian bombardment on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, local authorities announced, President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing a “despicable and cynical attack”.
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The mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, had initially mentioned on Telegram a balance sheet of three dead and ten wounded, before the regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov saw it on the rise.
“Unfortunately, the number of dead and injured as a result of the bombardment (…) has increased: six people died, sixteen were injured,” Sinegoubov said on Telegram.
“There is a powerful fire at the scene of the strike in an apartment building,” added Igor Terekhov.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told him of a “totally destroyed” apartment building in the strike. “A despicable and cynical attack on civilians that has no justification and demonstrates the helplessness of the aggressor,” he wrote on Telegram. “We will not forgive, we will take revenge”.
Located about 40 kilometers from the Russian border in northeastern Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv has been regularly pounded by the Russian army since the start of the invasion at the end of February, but troops from Moscow have not never succeeded in taking the city.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Kharkiv region since the start of the war, according to the count of the authorities.
Russian forces are currently concentrating their offensive on eastern and southern Ukraine.