Residents of Kharkiv woke up to the sound of bombs Thursday morning after the start of military operations launched by Russia in Ukraine. Warning, some images may shock.
In a few hours, the life of the inhabitants of Kharkiv, in Ukraine, rocked. Russia launched attacks across the country but had assured that it would only target military infrastructure. However, an apartment building was hit by a bombardment, as evidenced by photos taken by AFP on the spot. The city, the second largest in Ukraine after the capital, Kiev, is directly threatened by military operations, despite being near the Russian border.
The images taken by AFP show the face of an injured woman but also the firefighters on site. A man crying next to a person killed in the building explosion was also shared. The toll of this attack has not been specified, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has already announced that around ten civilians had been killed across the country. “I know that more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and several dozen injured and there is talk of a dozen civilians killed,” said Oleksiy Arestovych. Those losses were caused by air and missile strikes on Thursday morning, he said.
On video: the first images
The world – apart from China – quickly condemned the attacks carried out by Russia. The UN has implored Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops while France has called for an immediate halt to operations. President Emmanuel Macron has called for a NATO summit as soon as Ukraine has severed all diplomatic ties with Russia. “Peaceful Ukrainian towns are being attacked. It is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend and win. The world can and must stop Putin. Now is the time to act,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
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