One killed, 40 injured in Russian strikes on Kharkiv

At least one police officer has been killed and 40 other people injured in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.

The Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement that a location used by police officers had been hit, without clarifying what exactly it was.

“At 16:00, the enemy struck twice at the Osnovianskyi district of Kharkiv. They hit a private residential area. The explosion destroyed two private houses, damaged five private houses, damaged the facades of five multi-storey buildings and smashed hundreds of windows,” said Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesperson for the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.

“As of 16:30, two people were wounded in the explosion. As for the weaponry, most likely ballistic missiles were used. Two hits in one location, very close to each other. There was very serious damage to private houses, and it is not even clear whether it was two hits or one hit in this location.”

The attack, which local police say was carried out with S-400 missiles, left at least 10 people injured, including one rescue worker.

The Kharkiv governor, Oleh Syniehubov, however said that Russia had used S-300 missiles in its attack but the type of weaponry used has not been confirmed.

Syniehubov also said some of the injured police officers were in serious condition but didn’t give exact numbers.

Kharkiv remained under Ukrainian control hands throughout the first unsuccessful advance by Russian troops on the capital Kyiv but has since been a frequent target of Russian air strikes.

Strike on Sumy

Meanwhile, further north in Sumy, a nine-storey building was hit by a Russian air strike on Friday evening.

Five people were injured, including a pregnant woman, and several cars were also damaged in the strike, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

Sumy lies some 32 kilometres from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops made a surprise incursion in August in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.