Dozens of people were wounded in Russian drone strikes on Ukraine’s second biggest city, Kharkiv, officials said on Monday morning. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Kyiv’s allies for more support.
According to local and military officials, apartment buildings, a kindergarten and the regional draft office were damaged in two waves of strikes.
During the second wave, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said six Shahed attack drones had struck the city in northeastern Ukraine within 10 minutes, aimed “at residential streets, at cars, at people.” He said 43 people in total were wounded in both attacks.
A resident, Andriy Prenko, 61, said he was having breakfast in his kitchen when he heard a drone approach.
Read Also: At Least 45 Peple Injuered In an Explosion at Rome petrol station
“I woke my wife and goddaughter up and took them to the bathroom. I stood behind the partition wall and then there was an explosion,” he told Reuters inside his damaged apartment.
“Glass shattered and the windows were blown off. Then there was another one,” he added.
Kharkiv has been a frequent target since early Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion and appeared to have been the worst-hit city in Ukraine on a night of Russian drone and missile strikes across the country.
Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Monday that at least 17 people were injured and dozens of residential buildings and a university building were damaged in a morning drone strike in southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia.
Read Also: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs cleared of sex trafficking and racketeering, found guilty on 2 of 5 counts
Russia has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians in air strikes throughout the war. It says it does not target civilians directly, although it does target infrastructure it says supports Ukraine’s war effort. Ukraine has also killed a smaller number of civilians in attacks on Russian territory and Russian-held parts of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy urged Kyiv’s Western partners to deliver on pledges to boost Ukrainian defences.
On X, Zelenskiy wrote, “We are strongly counting on our partners to fully deliver on what we have agreed. Air defence remains the top priority for protecting lives.”
