Russian attacks on Kharkiv and region kill one, injure 17, officials say

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian attacks on Orthodox Easter Sunday killed a woman buried under rubble and injured 17 in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region, regional officials said.

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said six people were injured in an overnight drone attack on the Osnovyanskyi district of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Ten more were hurt in an attack later in the day by aerial bombs on the city centre.

“The next time it could hit my house. Why did it hit here? Just who is here? And on such a holy day. How? I cannot grasp it at all…” Natalia Avilova-Patrikeyeva said outside an apartment building with shattered balconies and windows blown out.

“I thought that at least on this day it would remain calm. At four in the morning there also was a strike. I don’t sleep, I don’t sleep at all.”

Kharkiv withstood a weeks-long Russian onslaught in the early days of the February 2022 Russian invasion and has been a frequent target of attacks in recent weeks.

Russia says it does not target civilian sites, but attacks have hit apartment blocks, schools and medical institutions.

Stunned residents milled about the courtyard outside a bloc of flats or surveyed debris in apartments or in stairwells. Forensic experts combed the ground for pieces of shrapnel.

“The explosion wave kicked out the door and I hid under the table. When I realised what was happening, there was smoke everywhere,” said resident Roza Kuzmenko.

“One woman from our block was wounded, the ambulance took her. Thank God, I only have a scratch (on my arm).”

Syniehubov also reported the death of an 88-year-old woman in the shelling of the village of Monachynivka, east of Kharkiv. Her body was recovered from the rubble of a house. A man was injured.

(Reporting by Vitalii Hnidyi, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Andrea Ricci)