At lease 10 people were killed when Russia struck a five-story residential building in the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with a ballistic missile, local officials said on March 8, prompting an angry call by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for action by Western partners.
“Since nightfall, [rescue crews] have been dismantling the rubble of a residential building in Kharkiv after a Russian ballistic missile strike,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
“The entrance was destroyed, the upper floors of a neighboring building were damaged…There may still be people under the rubble. All necessary services are working on the spot for rescue.”
Officials said two children were among the dead in the attack.
AFP said its reporters saw rescuers sifting through the debris, where several people were believed to be trapped.
Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said 15 people were also injured and 19 residential buildings were damaged by the Russian attacks overnight.
“There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life. Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support should continue,” Zelenskyy said, calling on Western partners to step up supplies of air defense weapons.
Russia denies it targets civilian areas, despite widespread evidence of such attacks. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial complexes, military airfields, and energy sites, Interfax reported.
Ukrainian officials said Russia also attacked four rail stations and other railway infrastructure in central Ukraine and port facilities in the Odesa region in the south of the country.
Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington have been involved in trilateral negotiations to attempt to end Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, which became a full-scale war following Russia’s invasion of February 2022.
However, those talks appear to be on hold since the United States, along with Israel, launched a massive air campaign against Iran, leading to Iranian retaliation against many Gulf Arab countries.
