Russia pummels Kharkiv with drones and bombs, Ukraine says
On Saturday afternoon, Russia dropped two more glide bombs on the city, killing at least one more resident and injuring at least 16 others, Terekhov said.
Advertisement
Photographs released by Ukraine's emergency services showed the upper floors of a residential block ablaze after the overnight strike, with white smoke pouring into the early morning sky. In other images, rescuers sifted through the charred wreckage of a gutted apartment. Parts of the photos were blurred, likely to hide the remains of two people killed in that strike, according to the rescuers. A third person died elsewhere in Kharkiv, and about 20 others were injured in the assault.
Advertisement
The local prosecutor's office said Saturday afternoon that six people were most likely still trapped under the rubble of an industrial facility in Kharkiv that was struck during the overnight attack.
The attacks Saturday came as Russian forces about 100 miles north of Kharkiv pushed deeper into Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, seizing two more villages and advancing their effort to carve out a buffer zone along the Russia-Ukraine border.
Even in Kharkiv, a city of 1.3 million that over the years has learned to live with near-daily Russian bombardments, Saturday's attacks were a clear sign of Russia's strategy to intensify air assaults in a bid to overwhelm and break through Ukraine's air defenses.
They came just a day after Russia launched one of its biggest air assaults of the war across Ukraine, involving more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles, in what Russia described as retaliation for Ukraine's audacious attacks on its strategic bomber bases last weekend.
President Donald Trump this past week compared the dual air assaults between Russia and Ukraine to 'two young children fighting like crazy.'
'They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart,' Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office news conference. 'They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.'
In an interview with ABC News released Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the comment. 'We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park,' he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids.'
In April, a Russian missile struck a playground in Zelenskyy's hometown, Kryvyi Rih, killing 19 civilians, including nine children. It was the deadliest strike against children since the beginning of the war, according to the United Nations.
Advertisement
Russia's intensified attacks have come alongside a new offensive in the east and in the northeastern Sumy region. The push into Sumy follows Russian forces driving Ukrainian troops back from parts of Russia's Kursk region, just across the border from Sumy.
To prevent future incursions into Kursk, Putin announced last month that Russian forces would launch an offensive in Sumy to create a buffer zone along the border. In the past three weeks, Russian troops have seized about 10 villages in the area, gaining control of roughly 75 square miles of territory.
'It's clear this is already an offensive on Sumy region -- a full-scale offensive,' said Andrii, a 44-year-old company intelligence commander fighting there who declined to be identified with his full name for security reasons and due to military protocol.
He said he saw the offensive not only as an effort to establish the buffer zone that Putin called for, but also as a strategy to pin down Ukrainian forces and prevent their redeployment to other front-line hot spots in the east.
Andrii said Russian troops were currently pushing toward the village of Khotin, 6 miles from the border. If they seize it, he warned, the situation could turn critical.
Khotin sits on high ground and lies less than 12 miles from the city of Sumy, the regional administrative center, close enough for Russian forces to strike it with drones and artillery. Sumy is home to about 250,000 people.
More than 200 villages and settlements have been evacuated from the Sumy region over the past year because of the fighting.
Advertisement
This article originally appeared in
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-US believes Russia response to Ukraine drone attack not over yet, expects multi-pronged strike
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its drone attack last weekend has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, U.S. officials told Reuters. The timing of the full Russian response was unclear, with one source saying it was expected within days. A second U.S. official said the retaliation was likely to include different kinds of air capabilities, including missiles and drones. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity. They did not detail Russia's expected targets nor elaborate on intelligence matters. The first official said Moscow's attack would be "asymmetrical," meaning that its approach and targeting would not mirror Ukraine's strike last weekend against Russian warplanes. Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday and Russia's Defense Ministry said the strike on military and military-related targets was in response to what it called Ukrainian "terrorist acts" against Russia. But the U.S. officials believe the complete Russian response is yet to come. A Western diplomatic source said that while Russia's response may have started, it would likely intensify with strikes against symbolic Ukrainian targets like government buildings, in an effort to send a clear message to Kyiv. Another, senior, Western diplomat anticipated a further devastating assault by Moscow. "It will be huge, vicious and unrelenting," the diplomat said. "But the Ukrainians are brave people." The Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said he expected Moscow might seek to punish Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, for its role in last weekend's assault. To send a message, Russia could employ intermediate-range ballistic missiles for the attack, he said. "Most likely, they will attempt to retaliate against (SBU) headquarters, or other regional intelligence administration buildings," Kofman said, adding Russia could also target Ukrainian defense manufacturing centers. Still, Kofman suggested Russia's options for retaliation may be limited as it is already throwing a lot of its military might at Ukraine. "In general, Russia's ability to substantially escalate strikes from what they are already doing - and attempting to do over the past month - is quite constrained," he said. OPERATION 'SPIDER'S WEB' Kyiv says Sunday's audacious attack employed 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched deep from within Russian territory in an operation code-named "Spider's Web." The United States assesses that up to 20 warplanes were hit - around half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - and around 10 were destroyed. The Russian government on Thursday denied that any planes were destroyed and said the damage would be repaired, but Russian military bloggers have spoken of loss or serious damage to about a dozen planes, including those capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The strikes, prepared over 18 months and conducted by drones smuggled close to the bases in trucks, dealt a powerful symbolic blow to Russia, which throughout the Ukraine war has frequently reminded the world of its nuclear might. Putin told President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to attack, Trump said in a social media post. Trump later told reporters that "it's probably not going to be pretty." "I don't like it. I said: 'Don't do it. You shouldn't do it. You should stop it,'" Trump said of his conversation with Putin. "But, again, there's a lot of hatred."
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Germany plans to revamp shelter system in case of Russian attack by 2029: ‘We are concerned about the risk of a major war'
Fearing Russia could attack another European country within the next four years, Germany is planning to expand its network of bomb-proof bunkers and shelters, according to reports. 'For a long time, there was a widespread belief in Germany that war was not a scenario for which we needed to prepare,' Ralph Tiesler, the head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, said in a recent interview as reported by The Guardian. 'That has changed,' Tiesler said. 'We are concerned about the risk of a major war of aggression in Europe.' Advertisement 4 Germany's civil protection agency chief is warning that the country is not prepared for a Russian attack. Fears are mounting that the Kremlin — following its three-year war in Ukraine — could be capable of attacking a NATO country by 2029, so Germany must 'muster a functioning, comprehensive defense system by then,' Tiesler said. And time is of the essence. Germany cannot rely on building new bunker facilities in time so Tiesler's agency is working on plans to transform tunnels, metro stations, underground garages, car parks and the basements of public buildings into shelters. Advertisement To be presented this summer, they would create shelter for 1 million people, he estimated. The country has about 2,000 bunkers left over from the Cold War but fewer than 600 are in working order and most will require pricey renovations, Tiesler explained. Plus, those would only shelter about 480,000, less than 1% of the German population. 4 Germany's Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is working on plans to transform metro stations and tunnels into shelters. 4 Germany's existing bunkers are nearly 80 years old and in need of renovations. Advertisement Finland, on the other hand, has 50,000 bunkers that could hold 4.8 million people, or 85% of its population, according to Tiesler's office. The agency leader is urging German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to fund the plans, as well as efforts to revamp apps, road signs and siren systems that would be used if residents need to take shelter. 'We don't want to unnecessarily frighten anyone, but we must nevertheless clearly warn of the danger of a military attack,' Tiesler told news site Zeit Online. 4 Russia's brutal war in Ukraine has caused fears in other European countries. AP Advertisement Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked similar concerns across Europe, motivating some countries to begin defense preparations. Poland, which borders Russia and Ukraine, plans to spend almost 5% of GDP on defense this year, the more than any of its NATO partners, the BBC reported last month.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Zelensky urges US to act on Ukraine's request to buy air defenses after deadly Kharkiv bombing
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 7 that Russian forces continued to brutally bomb Kharkiv, targeting the city "throughout the day" with both drones and guided aerial bombs. Two people were killed and at least 18 injured following what Zelensky called "a brutal strike on the city in broad daylight." "These Russian strikes are not 'retaliation' but acts of destruction," the president added. On June 6, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to justify Russia's large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities launched the night before, in response to Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb. He said earlier that Russia's response to Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb is likely "not going to be pretty." "They gave (Russian President Vladimir) Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Zelensky stressed that Russia's goal is the complete erasure of life in Ukraine and reiterated that in all occupied territories, Russia has shown its true intent — building only military infrastructure and looting anything of value. "In more than 11 years of war, Russia has brought only one new thing to our land — ruins and death," he said. Zelensky highlighted Ukraine's urgent need for air defense and appealed specifically to the United States: "We still await a response to our proposal to purchase systems that can help. We need concrete signals, not words." He thanked European countries for their support and underlined the need for joint production of air defense systems and missiles, noting this is essential not only for Ukraine but for all of Europe. He also renewed calls for increased international pressure, saying that "no form of pressure on Russia can be eased." Zelensky warned that Moscow continues to prepare for war and ignores every peace proposal: "They must be held accountable." Reporting on recent military updates, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces destroyed three Russian Iskander missile launchers used to strike Ukrainian communities. He also confirmed the downing of a Su-35 fighter jet, damage to Russian helicopters, and new strikes against Russian military logistics and airfields. "Every complication for Russia matters for our defense," he said. Read also: Ukraine refutes Russia's claims of disrupting POW exchange We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
