Russian forces staged guided bomb attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, badly damaging an administrative building and a medical facility and injuring at least 19 people, Ukrainian officials said.
News reports said the evening attack in the heart of the city struck one of its most celebrated landmarks, a government building dubbed the Soviet Union’s first skyscraper, dating from 1928, when Kharkiv was the capital of Soviet Ukraine.
Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said six people were wounded in the 9pm local time strike and emergency crews were assessing damage and casualties. He said several floors of the administrative building, which he did not identify, had been destroyed.
Thirteen were wounded in earlier overnight attacks on an apartment building and storage space in Kharkiv. Eight were hurt in the city of Chuhuiv just to the southeast, Syniehubov said.
Regional prosecutors said Russia had used guided bombs, which offers reduced risks to attackers, on targets in Kharkiv, A multi rocket-launch system was used in Chuhuiv.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Kharkiv withstood an attempted Russian advance on the capital Kyiv in the early days of the war and has since been a frequent target of air assaults.
Two people were also killed in southern Ukraine’s Kherson late on Sunday after Russian forces shelled the centre of the front-line city, regional officials said.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022, but regularly hits towns and cities behind the front line.
