Russia hits Kharkiv with aerial bombs for first time since 2022
KYIV: Russia struck the northeastern city of Kharkiv with aerial bombs on Wednesday for the first time since 2022, killing at least one civilian and wounding 16 others, local officials said.
The airstrikes caused widespread damage, hitting several residential buildings and damaging the city’s institute for emergency surgery.
Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent days, launching several missile barrages on the capital Kyiv and hitting energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian aerial attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. Such sporadic attacks, however, have been common throughout the war.
The Kharkiv region cuts across the front line where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been locked in battles for over two years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The region is frequently attacked with missiles and drones.
Sergey Bolvinov, head of the investigative police department in Kharkiv, said in a Telegram post that Wednesday’s attack marked the first time aerial bombs were used since 2022. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov also reported the use of aerial bombs.
The recent escalation comes as exhausted Ukrainian troops struggle with a shortage of personnel and ammunition and face growing Russian pressure along the front line that stretches over 1,000 kilometres.
Russia wants to wear down air defences
Russia also fired salvoes of drones and missiles overnight at southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, authorities said on Thursday, injuring more than a dozen people as the Kremlin’s forces persevered with attritional attacks designed to wear down Ukrainian defences.
Air defence systems intercepted 26 out of 28 Shahed drones, Ukraine’s air force said.
Russian forces also launched five missiles overnight, it said.
The attacks also aim to “deplete Ukraine’s inventory of ground-based air defence”, according to a recent military assessment published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
That would erode some of Ukraine’s combat ability as it waits on pledged but delayed military support from the West, including ammunition for its artillery and air defences.
Russian bombs turn village into ‘hell’ According to a report by AFP, the Ukrainian village of Velyka Pysarivka, located a mere five kilometres from the Russian border, has been described resembling ‘hell’.
Svitlana Zavaly, a local, was searching desperately for anything that could be salvaged from the rubble of her home destroyed by a Russian bomb.
“We’ve got nothing left,” said the 67-year-old resident said. For around 10 days in midMarch, Russian bombs, shells and rockets rained down on the village and others along the frontier, in apparent retribution for incursions into Russia by pro-Kyiv Russian fighters.
“We had everything. And in an instant, this happened. It’s a good thing we had left two days earlier,” Zavaly said.