A Russian drone strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv sparked massive fires that destroyed over a dozen homes and killed at least seven people, including children, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Syniehubov said Russia hit an oil depot in nation’s second-largest city Friday night with Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones, causing a fuel leak that sparked blazes engulfing 15 homes.
Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky lashed out at Russia over the bloody attack, which he said killed a family of five, along with another couple.
“Terrorists must lose the war they started. Russia must be held accountable for every life it has harmed and ruined,” he wrote.
Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the National Police in the region, said the children were aged 7, 4 and 10 months.
Over 200 emergency service responders worked through the night to contain the blaze, and at least 50 people were evacuated, Syniehubov said, noting at least three were wounded. As of Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people were without power.
A firefighter works at one of the sites that was hit by a Russian drone attack on Saturday in Kharkiv, Ukraine. REUTERS
Kharkiv has been under attack regularly since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been a frequent target of Russian assaults in recent weeks. REUTERS
Firefighters and rescuers worked through the night to cope with the consequences of the strike, extinguish fires, and clear through the debris, officials said. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 31 drones Friday night targeting the Kharkiv and southern Odesa regions, 23 of which were downed.
Syniehubov said Friday night’s drone strikes also hit a cafe in the village of Velykyi Burluk, sparking a fire there as well, but it did not cause any casualties.
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said Friday’s drone attack injured four in the area, in addition to damaging industrial and port infrastructure as well as cars.
Russian forces struck the city late on Friday, hitting civilian infrastructure, causing several large fires, and damaging at least 15 residential houses in the east of Kharkiv. REUTERS
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire caused by the Russian drone strike late Friday night in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AFP via Getty ImagesKharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian assaults since the outbreak of the war in February 2022, and the city has been attacked several times by Moscow’s forces in recent weeks.
In other news:
- Russia’s Defense Ministry trumpeted that it had foiled an attempted Ukrainian drone attack Friday evening on Moscow’s “civilian transport ships” in the southwestern part of the Black Sea. It claimed Russian patrol boats and warplanesprevented the attack by taking out a Ukrainian naval drone with artillery fire and downing the rest with electronic jamming.
- Turkish F-16 fighter jets stationed in NATO member Romania were ordered into the air early Saturday after Russian drones struck the Odesa region, Romania’s Defense Ministry said. The ministry, which condemned Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River, said no unauthorized intrusions into Romania’s airspace were detected and no debris from downed Russian drones were found in its territory.
With Post wires
