A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv hit a residential building and a playground, killing six people and injuring at least 55 more, local authorities said.
Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said on Telegram one child was killed in the playground. Three people were killed in the 12-storey apartment block that caught fire as a result of the strike, he said.
About 20 of the injured were in severe condition, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
One end of the block was engulfed in black smoke, with many of the upper floors in flames. Several cars parked outside were gutted by fire.
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Emergency services and rescue volunteers rushed to carry survivors out of the building. The body of one of the victims lay under a carpet on the ground outside, surrounded by police.
Residents of all ages, some of them covered in blood, sat stunned on benches and walls outside as medics attended to their injuries.
The authorities did not give the circumstances in which the two other people died in the strikes, which hit four areas of the city.
Kharkiv has been the focus of heavy Russian bombing throughout the war, although there had been a drop in intensity in recent weeks, possibly related to a shock incursion launched by Ukrainian forces into Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian authorities said that Friday’s attack involved five aerial guided bombs launched from planes in Russia’s Belgorod region, also known as “glide bombs” which are fitted with a navigation system taking them to their targets.
The weapons are hard to intercept and they have become a fearsome tool in the war in eastern Ukraine in recent months that can cause huge devastation.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. Thousands have been killed and wounded during the full-scale invasion Moscow launched in Ukraine in 2022.
In the wake of the Kharkiv strike, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed a call on western allies to allow Ukraine to use long-range western weapons to attack Russian military airbases. “A strike...would not have happened if our defence forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based,” Mr Zelenskiy said on Telegram. “There is no rational reason to restrict Ukraine’s defences.”
Kyiv says that the most effective way to counter such strikes is to target Russian planes, not the bombs themselves.
Ukraine has meanwhile urged Mongolia to arrest Russian president Vladimir Putin on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant when he visits on Tuesday, but the Kremlin said it was not worried about the trip.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March of last year against Mr Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation, saying it is politically motivated. The warrant obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest Mr Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
“We call on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the mandatory international arrest warrant and transfer Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on social media platform Telegram.
Asked earlier whether Moscow was concerned that Mongolia is a member of the ICC, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “No, no worries about this. We have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.”
Asked whether there had been discussions with Mongolian authorities about the ICC warrant, Mr Peskov said: “Obviously the visit, all of the aspects of the visit have been thoroughly discussed.” – Reuters