Ukraine Updates: 3 killed in strikes on Kharkiv – DW – 05/31/2024

Russian missiles hit three sites in Ukraine‘s second largest city, Kharkiv, killing at least three people and injuring 16, officials said on Friday. 

Bystander accounts of the strike said the missiles hit a five-storey apartment block, a shop, a three-storey building and a sewing factory, around midnight local time. 

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that S-300 missiles were used. He further said the attacks were in the “double tap” format seen of late, in which a second strike is delivered soon after the initial one on the same site. 

“All strikes are exclusively at civilian infrastructure,” he added.

Syniehubov warned that more people could be under the rubble. He said at least two children  and an emergency medic were among the injured in the attack.

Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians.  

“The third, fourth and fifth floors are destroyed, stairwells were destroyed, facades were destroyed,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told public broadcaster Suspilne, describing damage to the apartment building.

Kharkiv Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko told Suspilne he expected the death toll to rise given the extensive shrapnel injuries. 

The northeastern city of Kharkiv, which is located just across the border from Russia’s Belgorod, withstood Russian advances in the early weeks of the invasion. However, it has been repeatedly attacked by missiles and drones in recent weeks.