A Russian guided bomb struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing a child and injuring at least 29 people, according to local officials. Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegoubov said an 11-year-old was pulled from the rubble with serious head wounds and fractures, and medics were unable to save him. He had been trapped with two others.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Synegoubov said the strike had triggered a fire and destroyed most of one entrance, making a huge hole in the building. Reuters Television footage showed rescue teams picking their way through piles of concrete and twisted metal to bring out the injured and rush them into ambulances.
President Zelensky said the attack underscored the need for more military aid from Ukraine’s Western allies.
“Our partners can see what is happening every day,” he wrote on Telegram. “And in these conditions, every decision that is put off means, at the very least, dozens of lives and hundreds of Russian bombs used against Ukraine.”
The Russian Advance
Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Kruhliakivka, near the key town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced. Ukraine’s military has not acknowledged the claim, but say nine villages are gripped by fighting in the area, with 15 Russian attacks repelled and nine clashes still ongoing.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian intelligence reported that Russian forces had been pushed back from the village.
Kupiansk had been subjected to shelling and then air attacks, injuring six people, including two police officers. One person died when Russian forces shelled the village of Kucherivka, a few km to the east.
Moscow has made steady gains on the battlefield these past few months, pressing their advantage against overstretched and outmanned Ukrainian forces. Russian army units “liberated the settlement of Izmailovka,” the Russian defense ministry said, using the Russian spelling for the village. Izmailivka had a population of just under 200 people before the conflict.
Nine people were injured, several apartments set ablaze and a kindergarten damaged as Russia carried out its 19th attack on Kyiv so far this month. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 62 drones overnight, but its air defenses destroyed 33 of them over Kyiv and other regions, while 25 were unaccounted for.
In a separate attack, three people were killed in a missile attack on central Ukraine that left at least 20 injured.
According to Kyiv’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, the drone slammed into a 25-story apartment block on Friday night in the city’s west, killing a 15-year-old girl and injuring five others.
Ukraine’s emergency service said 100 people were evacuated after the strike, which damaged several apartments on the building’s upper floors.
Concern Grows over North Korean Soldiers in Russia
The US, South Korean and Japanese national security advisers expressed “grave concern” on Friday over the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia for possible use against Ukraine.
The trio have called on Russia and North Korea to cease arms and missile transfers.
The transfers violate UN Security Council resolutions, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
Vladimir Putin on Thursday did not deny that North Korean troops are in Russia but he said it was Moscow’s business how to implement a treaty with Pyongyang that includes a mutual defense clause.
North Korea did not acknowledge the deployment of troops to Russia, but said any such move would be in compliance with international law, adding that “Pyongyang and Moscow maintain close contact with each other on mutual security and development of the situation.”
Deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un his troops will “return in body bags” if they enter Ukraine.
South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun has said there is a “high chance” North Korea will seek tactical nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology from Russia in exchange for the deployment of its troops to Ukraine.
South Korea is considering sending a team of military monitors to Ukraine to observe and analyze any deployment of North Korean troops, a presidential official has said.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
