Russia attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Sunday with a guided bomb, killing one person and injuring eight, officials said.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the bomb hit near the city center, triggering a fire that damaged buildings and vehicles. He said an 8-month-old infant was among the injured.
Kharkiv is about 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the Russian border and has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the 28-month war. Russian forces have increasingly relied on guided bombs in their assaults.
Russian forces launched a cross-border incursion into the Kharkiv region last month and seized several villages, but Ukrainian officials say the situation near the border has been stabilized.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military released drone footage that shows what appears to be bodies in a civilian area in the embattled eastern town of Toretsk, which Russia has heavily bombarded in recent days.
Ukraine has ramped up rescue services in the Donetsk region as a result of the attacks.
Local officials say that Russia is using powerful glide bombs to attack the area. They are heavy Soviet-era bombs weighing more than a ton apiece fitted with precision guidance systems and launched from aircraft flying out of range of air defenses.
VOA has been unable to independently verify such battlefield claims.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had dropped more than 800 glide bombs in Ukraine in the past week alone.
“Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are. This step is essential,” he wrote in an online post.
Zelenskyy called on countries assisting Ukraine to further relax restrictions on using Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.
“Clear decisions are needed to help protect our people,” he said. “Long-range strikes and modern air defense are the foundation for stopping the daily Russian terror. I thank all our partners who understand this.”
Some material in this report came Reuters and The Associated Press.
