At least three people have been killed and scores more wounded – including children – after Russian forces launched a new wave of attacks on Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv.
Overnight, three missile strikes destroyed a school, hit a residential building and landed near warehouse facilities, Ukrainian officials said.
“All (three were launched) exclusively on civilian objects, this is absolute terrorism!” said Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Hours later shelling which officials said came from multiple rocket launchers, hit more civilian targets.
“Only civilian structures, a shopping centre and houses of peaceful Kharkiv residents, came under the fire of the Russians. Several shells hit the yards of private houses. Garages and cars were also destroyed, several fires broke out,” Syniehubov wrote online.
Children aged 4 and 16 were among those injured in the latest attacks.
Weekend attacks killed 24
The new strikes came just two days after a Russian rocket attack hit apartment buildings in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 24 people. A total of nine people have been rescued, emergency officials said.
The attack late Saturday destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of the town of Chasiv Yar, inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
Russian attacks in the east have also continued, with Luhansk regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai saying on Monday that the shelling hit settlements on the administrative border with the Donetsk region.
Russian forces carried out five missile strikes and four rounds of shelling in the area, Haidai said.
The Luhansk and Donetsk regions together make up Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland known as Donbas, where separatist rebels have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Earlier this month, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk.
After the seizure of Lysychansk, some analysts predicted Moscow’s troops would likely take some time to rearm and regroup, but Ukrainian officials said there has been no pause in attacks.
The latest British military intelligence assessment of the war said that Russian troops are not getting enough breaks.
The Ministry of Defence tweeted on Monday that online videos suggested at least one tank brigade in the war was “mentally and physically exhausted” as they had been on active combat duty since the start of the war on 24 February.
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