At least three killed in multiple Russian attacks on Kharkiv

An apartment building was among sites hit in Ukraine’s second-biggest city with at least 16 people reported injured.

At least three people have been killed and 16 injured after Russian missiles hit at least three sites including a five-storey apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city.

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the missiles, all thought to be S-300s, also hit a shop in a three-storey building and a garment factory in the city’s Novobazarskyi district.

Syniehubov said the attacks were “double tap” style, with a second strike hitting a site soon after the first at a time when emergency teams are usually at work.

The attack took place at about midnight local time (21:00 GMT).

Syniehubov said at least two children were among those injured, as well as an emergency medic, and warned that residents could be trapped beneath the rubble of the building.

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

Kharkiv Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko told Suspilne that he expected the death toll to rise given the scale of the destruction and the likelihood of shrapnel injuries.

Kharkiv, which lies not far from the border with Russia’s Belgorod region, has come under renewed attack in recent weeks. Some 17 people were killed last weekend when Russia, which began an offensive in the region earlier this month, bombed a hardware superstore in the city.

Kharkiv, which had a population of about 1.5 million people before the war, withstood Russian advances in the early weeks of its February 2022 invasion.

Moscow claims it does not deliberately target civilians.

Officials revealed on Thursday in the United States that President Joe Biden had lifted restrictions on Ukraine using US-supplied weapons against targets on Russian territory, saying they could be used on Russian troops and military sites in areas bordering the Kharkiv region.