Firefighters battle a blaze in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, on Friday after an early morning missile strike launched by Russian forces that caused widespread damage and injured at least two people, including an 11-year-old child. Photo by Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE
Three people were killed and 13 injured after Russia unleashed rockets, attack drones and artillery fire against targets across eastern and southeastern Ukraine, regional authorities said Friday.
A 62-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman were killed in Nikopol on the left bank of the Dnipro River and eight people were injured, including two teenage girls, in more than two dozen attacks throughout Thursday, said Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhii Lysak. Advertisement
Eight high-rise residential buildings, 25 private homes, a kindergarten, fire station, charity organization building, a bank, shops and power and gas lines were damaged. At least a dozen cars were destroyed, including rescue vehicles and an ambulance.
Shelling near a gas station in Kupiansk, 73 miles southeast of Kharkiv, killed a 51-year-old man and injured a 49-year-old woman, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported in a social media post. A 62-year-old woman was hurt in a separate incident when the border village of Lyptsi, just 8 miles inside Ukraine, came under fire from Russian forces, according to Syniehubov.
The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said in an update that it had launched twin criminal and war crimes investigations following the death of the man from his injuries in hospital. Advertisement
Kharkiv itself, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was hit by a long-range S-300 missile Friday injuring an 11-year-old child and a 72-year-old woman. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attack in the early hours razed two houses to the ground and damaged another 24.
In Zaporizhzhia, a woman was injured after the city was hit by fire from a Russian multiple rocket launcher, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration reported.
Attacks in Donetsk province injured at least one person. Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin, said the civilian victim was hurt in Hostre, a village in Pokrovsk district less than six miles from the front line.
President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged Thursday that Russian forces had the upper hand on the eastern front but said Ukraine would be able to halt their advance if arms supplies from its Western allies increased.
“With increased arms supplies, we will be able to stop them in the East. They have the initiative there now. This is not a secret. We need to stop them, take the initiative into our own hands. It is possible only when you have something strong in your hands,” said Zelensky, noting that supplies so far were less than the amount voted for by Congress on April 23. Advertisement
Speaking in Kyiv at joint press conference with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, Zelensky said Ukraine’s armed forces would get the job done as soon as they received the military resources they needed.
“Of course, taking advantage of this moment, they [Russian forces] have increased their troops in the north, in the East, and certainly everywhere. They are increasing something everywhere.”
