Russian Bombing Leaves Dozens of Ukrainian Civilians Injured
The Russian attack in Kharkiv follows an attack in Odessa that left two Ukrainians dead.
At least 30 civilians in Kharkiv, Ukraine, were reported injured on Sept. 15 in the wake of an exchange of missile and drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine.
A Russian-guided missile hit a residential high-rise in Kharkiv, a city in Ukraine’s northeast, on Sunday afternoon. Being so close to the Russian border, Kharkiv has been a key target of Russian strikes since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram that “the rescue operation … continues.”
“An ordinary residential building, a multi-story building, was damaged. There is a fire and rubble between the 9th and 12th floors,” Zelenskyy said in the post, which included photos of the damaged building.
Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said there was also damage to other civilian infrastructure.
In his post on Telegram, Zelenskyy reiterated his calls for western assistance to his Eastern European nation.
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“The world must help defend Ukraine from Russian military aircraft, from dozens of guided bombs that take lives of Ukrainians every day. This terror can be stopped,” Zelenskyy said.
Such attacks have become commonplace along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia as the conflict approaches the two-year mark.
Hours before the attack on Kharkiv, on the evening of Sept. 14, a Russian missile strike also caused two deaths in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Russia recently sent 14 drones—10 of which were intercepted by the Ukrainian military—and three missiles—one of which was intercepted—into Ukraine.
Kyiv has often made calls that it be allowed to use powerful western munitions to bring the fight into Russia, though the West has restricted such uses out of concerns about escalation. Up to now, the United States has permitted Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons provided solely within a restricted zone adjacent to the Russian border.
On Sept. 14, President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met to discuss support for Ukraine.
While Starmer called the meeting “long and productive” while speaking to the press afterward, he didn’t mention whether they had come to a new agreement regarding Ukrainians using high-powered weaponry inside Russia.
He reiterated U.S. and UK support for Ukraine over Russia.
An injured local resident speaks on his mobile phone following a missile attack in Kharkiv on Sept. 15, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire in a residential building following a missile attack in Kharkiv on Sept. 15, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images
Putin told state television that Moscow would make “appropriate decisions” to address threats against Russia if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allowed Kyiv to strike the country with Western-supplied long-range arms.
Putin suggested that Russia would perceive such a development as being tantamount to direct NATO involvement in the conflict.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, has suggested that Germany will not supply long-range precision missiles to Ukraine, regardless of what the United States and other NATO nations do, citing “a great risk of escalation.”
Caden Pearson contributed to this report.
