The recent wave of strikes is widely seen as retaliation for a bold Ukrainian drone attack that disabled over a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers, News.az reports citing CNN.com.
Kharkiv, located roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Russian border, was rocked by “at least 40 explosions” on Saturday, Mayor Igor Terekhov reported on Telegram.
“This is the most intense attack on Kharkiv since the start of the full-scale invasion,” he stated. “The enemy is using missiles, drones, and guided bombs in a coordinated assault. It’s pure terror against the civilian population.”
Emergency services released video footage showing a major fire engulfing a multi-story apartment building in the Osnovyanskyi district, where two people were reported dead. Another person was killed when a strike hit a residential building in the Kyivskyi district, Terekhov added.
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the attack, accusing Russia of continuing its campaign of terror against civilians and urging stronger international action to halt Moscow’s violence and destruction.
Russia said that its forces carried out high-precision strikes overnight on Ukrainian military facilities. “The strikes achieved their objectives. All designated targets were destroyed,” the Russian Ministry of Defense posted on Telegram.
More than 50 drones, four guided aerial bombs and a missile were used in the attack which also damaged an administrative building and music school in the city, according to Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office.
Among the injured include a 14-year-old girl and a one-and-a-half-month-old boy, who is suffering from “acute stress,” the office added.
Ruslana Sheveleva, a Kharkiv resident whose neighbors’ house was struck in the attack, described the chaotic scenes as people scrambled to escape the building. “The house was hit, right where this young man was lying,” she told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
“I don’t think he even understood what was happening. He died instantly. They dug his mother out from under the rubble. His father, as I understand it, managed to get out almost on his own,” she added.
Iryna Ivanenko, another resident, said her 26-year-old daughter – who was later rescued by firefighters – begged her for help, trapped in her bedroom under a heavy slab. “I tried to lift the slab, but it was impossible,” Ivanenko told Suspline.
Russian attacks in the country have killed at least seven people and injured more than 40 others since Friday morning, according to a CNN tally of figures from local authorities.
Uncertainty over prisoner exchange
Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of indefinitely delaying a planned prisoner exchange and the return of fallen soldiers’ bodies. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky claimed Ukraine’s delegation failed to show up at the designated exchange site, despite prior agreements made during peace talks in Istanbul earlier in the week.
Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation in the negotiations, said Moscow had submitted a list of 640 wounded, ill, and young prisoners for exchange and had begun returning over 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. He noted that the first shipment of 1,212 bodies had already arrived at the exchange point in refrigerated trucks.
Ukraine has not officially responded to these latest claims, but on Friday, its Coordination Headquarters rejected Russia’s statements, calling them false and denying that any such repatriation process had begun.
Despite ongoing hostilities, both sides have conducted several prisoner swaps during the conflict.
In related developments, Ukraine’s air force reported Saturday that it shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet in the Kursk region. While Russian officials have yet to comment, a pro-Russian military blogger confirmed the jet’s loss and said the pilot had survived.
A day before the intensified bombardment of Kharkiv, Russia launched widespread drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, reportedly in retaliation for a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian targets. At least six people were killed and dozens injured in Friday’s strikes.
Commenting on the escalation, former U.S. President Donald Trump said, “They gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them,” referencing a recent conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It remains uncertain whether further Russian escalation is imminent.
