Russia has continued its assault on Kharkiv, with loud explosions heard in the central district on Sunday evening, just hours after one person was killed and four wounded in an earlier attack.
The governor, Oleh Synyehubov, urged people to take to shelters. Russia had began bombarding the north-eastern Ukrainian city at 2am on Sunday, firing four S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. No one was injured as two were intercepted and the other two landed in a courtyard.
Later on Sunday evening the Russians struck again, firing another two missiles. Synyehubov said a young man was killed and at least four people were wounded. Vapour trails were visible above Kharkiv’s Freedom Square and the neo-classical regional administration building, which was bombed in the first days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Synyehubov said the victim on Sunday was a man born in 1999 who worked in a civilian enterprise. Three people were hospitalised with shrapnel injuries after the strike in the Osnovianskyi district of the city. A fourth was treated at the scene.
Minutes later, there was a further air raid alerts, as Russia launched its third attack in less than 24 hours. Two blasts could be heard near the city centre. The governor posted: “The occupiers are again hitting Kharkiv. Move to the shelters.”
Ukraine recaptured much of the wider Kharkiv region in September, with Russian forces occupying now only a small strip of land there.
The deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram that Russian forces have also been attacking in the direction of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region for two successive days.
“We are on the defensive,” Maliar wrote. “There are fierce battles. The positions of both sides change dynamically several times a day.”
Maliar also said the two armies were pummelling one another around the ruined city of Bakhmut but that Ukrainian forces were “gradually moving forward” along its southern flank.
She added that Kyiv’s troops were also fending off Russian attacks elsewhere on the eastern front near Avdiivka and Maryinka.
