February 17, 2025
Russian Missiles Hit Kharkiv, Killing at Least 6

Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings in Kharkiv earlier than daybreak on Saturday, Ukrainian officers mentioned, killing not less than seven individuals and injuring not less than 11 extra within the newest assault on Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis.

“Russian terror in opposition to Kharkiv continues,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine mentioned in an announcement. “It’s essential to strengthen the air protection for the Kharkiv area. And our companions will help us with this.”

Ukraine’s air defenses have come more and more beneath pressure since American navy help stopped flowing into the nation greater than six months in the past, and future help stays unsure amid Republican resistance in Congress to a $60 billion support bundle.

Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, has hinted that he would quickly convey the difficulty of navy support for Ukraine to a vote within the Home, however has additionally mentioned that he may tie the difficulty to unrelated issues like home power insurance policies that would complicate its passage.

On the similar time, Russia has replenished and expanded its stockpile of missiles, guided bombs and assault drones and is stepping up its bombardments throughout the nation.

Mr. Zelensky mentioned this previous week that “in March alone, Russian terrorists used over 400 missiles of varied varieties, 600 Shahed drones and over 3,000 guided aerial bombs in opposition to Ukraine.”

Kharkiv, second in inhabitants solely to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and solely about 25 miles from the Russian border, has been notably exhausting hit. Russian forces tried and did not encircle and seize town within the first months of the conflict, which started in February 2022, and so they had been pushed out of many of the Kharkiv area throughout Kyiv’s counteroffensive that fall.

As Russia has stepped up its aerial bombardments of Kharkiv, it has for the primary time deployed highly effective guided bombs to hit town.

The usage of the modified bombs represents a brand new and probably lethal improvement in opposition to which Ukraine has little protection, Ukrainian officers and navy analysts mentioned.

There are a selection of variations of the weapons, referred to as glide bombs, however basically they’re highly effective gravity bombs modified with a set of wings and steerage techniques to permit them to be dropped by fighter-bombers out of the vary of Ukrainian air-defense techniques.

Greater than 20,000 buildings have been destroyed in Kharkiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Ukrainian authorities officers estimate that it’s going to value greater than $10 billion to rebuild every thing that has already been destroyed.

“Virtually all vital power infrastructure in Kharkiv is destroyed, and personal infrastructure can also be shattered,” Ihor Terekhov, town’s mayor, mentioned this previous week.

“Greater than 150,000 residents of Kharkiv are left homeless,” he added.

In the latest in a single day assault, Russia hit residential neighborhoods with a barrage of S-300 missiles, which had been fired from Russian territory and may attain Kharkiv in beneath a minute, Ukrainian officers mentioned.

9 residential buildings, a kindergarten, a restaurant and a fuel station had been among the many buildings broken, Oleh Syniehubov, the top of the Kharkiv navy administration, mentioned in an announcement.

The assault got here lower than 48 hours after Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv on Thursday killed 4 civilians, together with three emergency staff.

The bombardments have coincided with a propaganda marketing campaign by the Kremlin geared toward stoking panic within the metropolis.

“Russian propaganda is spreading pretend messages amongst Kharkiv residents, allegedly from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, concerning the potential encirclement of Kharkiv within the close to future with suggestions to go away town,” the Nationwide Safety and Protection Council of Ukraine mentioned.

“This info isn’t true,” the company mentioned. “The enemy doesn’t at the moment have the assets to encompass or seize Kharkiv.”

Regardless of the each day assaults and blackouts, there was no main exodus from town, which has a inhabitants of 1.3 million.

In current months, Russia has leveraged air superiority to make tactical features on the entrance. For example, it has used tons of of guided bombs to obliterate Ukrainian positions in Avdiivka earlier than seizing the longtime stronghold in jap Ukraine this yr. Moscow seems to be in search of to copy that technique to weaken different Ukrainian fortifications throughout the entrance.

Russia has additionally been working to extend the space such bombs can fly, in accordance with Ukrainian officers.

The guided bombs used to focus on Kharkiv just lately — which have been recognized by Ukrainian officers as air-to-surface missiles — have been designed to journey greater than 55 miles, permitting Russian warplanes to launch them with relative impunity from inside Russia, Ukrainian officers mentioned.

As soon as the bombs are unleashed, there’s little Ukraine can do to shoot them out of the sky, so Kyiv is looking for different methods to counter the menace.

As a part of that effort, Ukraine on Friday launched a fancy drone assault concentrating on Russian warplanes at a number of airfields throughout Russia.

A senior Ukrainian safety official, talking on the situation of anonymity to debate persevering with navy operations, mentioned that the drone assaults had destroyed not less than six navy plane and considerably broken one other eight.

Russia’s Protection Ministry claimed that its air defenses had intercepted greater than 50 drones geared toward targets throughout the nation and made no point out of harm to planes.

It was not potential to instantly confirm the claims by both aspect, and there was no unbiased visible affirmation after the assault that will enable navy analysts to evaluate the harm.

Nevertheless, the size of the Ukrainian operation could be important, analysts on the Institute for the Examine of Conflict, a Washington-based assume tank, mentioned on Friday night time.

“Ukraine’s capability to strike 4 separate air bases in a single strike sequence represents a notable inflection within the capabilities that Ukrainian forces are using of their marketing campaign in opposition to Russian navy infrastructure, vital infrastructure, and strategic industries inside Russia,” the analysts wrote.

Anastasia Kuznietsova contributed reporting.