According to officials, at least 41 persons have been hurt by Russian airstrikes in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Five children were among the injured, according to regional chief Oleh Syniehubov, who also charged Moscow with “aiming exclusively at civilian infrastructure” in the city.
He said that a grocery and a sports center that locals frequent are among the destroyed facilities.
Following the assaults, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared, “Russia is terrorizing Kharkiv once again, striking civilian infrastructure and the city itself.”
Calls from Mr. Zelensky to his Western partners to “give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself” were reiterated.
At least ten distinct Russian strikes, including the use of ballistic missiles, have been documented, according to Mr. Syniehubov.
He said that rescue efforts are ongoing and that people might be buried beneath the debris in certain places.
Based on multiple social media recordings of the attacks, BBC Verify has identified two strikes: one three miles south that caused damage to the city’s Palace of Sport buildings, and another northeast of Kharkiv’s center along Akademika Pavlova St.
Photos from every attack show the missile explosion and point of hit.
The attack follows a round of drone strikes by Ukraine on Russian targets during the night, during which two energy facilities caught fire.
Russian officials have not recorded any deaths or injuries.
Moscow and 15 other parts of the country were attacked by over 158 Ukrainian drones, according to Russia’s defense ministry.
The drones were intercepted and destroyed, according to the Russian military.
However, a fire in a “separate technical room” at a Moscow oil refinery started as a result of the attack, according to the mayor of the city.
ccording to Sergei Sobyanin, the capital city and its environs were the target of at least 11 drone attacks.
Meanwhile, there were huge explosions at the Konakovo Power Station in the Tver region, 75 miles (120 km) from the Russian capital.
The factory is reportedly on fire, according to Russian media.
Igor Rudenya, the region’s governor, confirmed that an attack in Konakovsky district had suppressed a fire, although he did not specify what was attacked.
Additionally, local authorities said that drones attempted to target the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow area, but that no injuries, damage, or fires resulted from the incident.
Videos of explosions at all three locations that have been shared on social media have been analyzed and validated by BBC Verify. Fires appear to have then broken out at the Moscow refinery and Konakovo Power Station in the video.
Ukraine has not responded to the assertions.
However, throughout the past few months, Ukrainian troops have increased their long-range strikes inside Russia, launching numerous drones at critical targets at the same time multiple times a week.
According to sources close to BBC News, hundreds of long-range strikes within Russia are being carried out with the assistance of Western technology and funding.
According to local sources, a Russian air strike on a grain convoy in the Sumy region of Ukraine overnight resulted in the death of a 23-year-old truck driver.
Four other people were hurt in the attack, according to the prosecution, after one lorry caught fire and about twenty more were damaged.
The Ukrainian air force also claimed to have shot down eight of the eleven Russian drones it had been using, and it alleged that the Mykolaiv region’s grain and agricultural infrastructure had also been targeted.
Sumy is adjacent to the Kursk region of Russia, the scene of a military incursion by Ukraine that has lasted for about a month.
Though progress has stalled recently, Ukraine declared last week that it was in possession of 1,294 square kilometers (500 square miles), including 100 villages. It added that over 600 Russian soldiers were taken prisoner.
Moscow has been focusing its ground offensive for months on a major town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk area, where Russian forces are still moving quickly forward.
Due to its strategic location at the intersection of multiple major routes and the presence of a major railway station, Pokrovsk serves as an essential logistical hub for Ukrainian forces.
The scenario surrounding Russia’s main strike is “difficult,” according to Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, but he also stated that the required choices are “being made without delay.”
The most recent strikes by the Ukrainians against Russian energy installations also occur one day after a 14-year-old girl was killed by a Russian guided bombing on a Kharkiv playground.
Six more persons were killed in a similar attack on a residential building in the city in northeastern Ukraine.
It also comes after Russia launched a devastating barrage of drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid last week, killing at least nine people in two days.
Shortly after starting its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia started sending airstrikes against the country’s energy infrastructure.
Richard Irvine-Brown and Benedict Garman contributed more reporting; BBC Verify.
