Nine people died in new Russian bombardments on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city which had begun a return to normal life in mid-May, regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov said on Telegram on Thursday.
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“Russian shelling on Kharkiv killed nine civilians,” Sinegoubov said. “A five-month-old baby died, as did his father. The mother is seriously injured and 19 civilians were injured”.
Missiles hit the residential area of the Pavlové Polé district, in the center-north of the city, near a shopping center which was closed at the time of the strike, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. He saw a young man killed and four injured, all taken to hospital, including an older man with a severed leg and arm.
Other residential areas were also bombed, with extensive destruction of buildings.
The mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, asked his constituents to take refuge in safe shelters.
“Enemy troops are shelling our city again,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. “I ask you to stay in safe places, cellars, shelters and metro stations”.
Since mid-May, relative calm had returned to this metropolis in eastern Ukraine, about fifty kilometers from the Russian border, which had some 1.5 million inhabitants before the war.
Russian forces had ceased their offensive on Kharkiv, to concentrate more troops in the east and south of Ukraine, and the city was beginning a difficult return to normal, notably reopening the circulation of the metro.
He specified that the subway would continue to transport passengers, but that sectors were going to be arranged to shelter in the event of bombardments.
The Kharkiv metro, like that of Kyiv, served as a refuge for many people at the height of the bombardments.
Russian forces are keeping positions to the east of the city, firing on its eastern part and the surrounding villages, AFP noted.
The Ukrainians for their part dug new trenches around the city and installed concrete blocks, sandbags and road checkpoints, in view of a possible new Russian attack.
