Projectile sets high-rise on fire: Russians bomb Kharkiv – dead and injured

Projectile sets high-rise building on fire
Russians bomb Kharkiv – dead and injured

15.09.2024, 22:30

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A Russian guided bomb hits the tenth floor of a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv in the afternoon. The attack causes a fire on the upper floors. A 94-year-old woman dies and many people are injured, including several children.

According to official reports, a 94-year-old woman was killed and dozens of civilians injured in a Russian air strike on the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. “A residential high-rise was damaged,” wrote Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on his Telegram channel. In the evening, the authorities reported one dead and 42 injured. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that three children were among the injured, the youngest of whom was one year old. The number of injured had previously been revised upwards several times by the authorities.

Rescue workers were still working in the evening to extinguish the fire that broke out between the ninth and twelfth floors after the bomb hit. The rescue operation lasted several hours. The helpers searched the rubble for other victims. In the evening they discovered the body of a woman under the rubble, as the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, announced. Parts of the city’s infrastructure were also damaged.

Earlier, the chief investigator of the Kharkiv police, Serhii Bolvinov, said, according to the Kyiv Independent, that the search for a 94-year-old woman was ongoing. She was alone at home while her family was shopping. Her daughter provided DNA to help identify the body, Bolvinov said.

Selenskyj reiterates demand to West

After the attack on the high-rise building in Kharkiv, Zelensky said in a video message that there was only one way to stop this “terror”: his country must be able to directly attack air bases in Russia. The Ukrainian president reiterated his call to the Western allies to allow Kyiv to use the weapons they supply to attack targets in Russia. “We expect appropriate decisions primarily from the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy,” the Ukrainian head of state added.

Before the war of aggression ordered by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Kharkiv was the second largest city in Ukraine with more than a million inhabitants. At the beginning of the war, Moscow tried to take the city, which was only about 30 kilometers from the border, but failed. Russia wanted to create a buffer zone, but the attacks came to a halt a few kilometers behind the border. Since then, Kharkiv has been one of the most heavily bombarded cities in Ukraine.

Russian troops have repeatedly attacked Kharkiv with artillery and rockets, and most recently with guided bombs. The bombs are released by aircraft over Russian territory and then glide towards their target.