A Russian missile strike in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region has killed 10 people and injured at least 18 others, Ukrainian officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed that Kyiv would respond.
The attack also injured at least 18 people and damaged 10 private homes, a café, a post office, five shops and 15 vehicles, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
“This morning the Russians launched a brutal attack on a busy intersection in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, a location with a post office and stores, surrounded only by residential buildings,” Zelenskiy said on X.
“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike,” he added.
Video footage from Pechenihy showed covered bodies on the ground, burned-out vehicles and damaged buildings.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said preliminary information indicated that Russia used two small Banderol cruise missiles in the strike. A local official told public broadcaster Suspilne that the missiles hit the central part of the village, where cafés, shops and the post office are located.
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack.
The United Nations said last week that civilian casualties in Ukraine rose by nearly one-third in July compared with the previous month. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was collecting information about the Pechenihy attack and its impact on civilians.
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Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent months, seeking to exploit Kyiv’s shortage of interceptors capable of stopping ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has also stepped up attacks inside Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure in an effort to weaken Moscow’s war effort. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday that Ukraine had launched 620 drones at Moscow and surrounding areas in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks on the region.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Reuters
