Over 20 people wounded after Russia strikes apartment blocks in Ukraine's Kharkiv

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian strikes hit high-rise apartment blocks in Ukraine's city of Kharkiv, leaving dozens wounded in a second consecutive nighttime attack this past week.

The bombs fell Saturday night on the district of Shevchenkivsky, north of the center of Kharkiv, the second largest city, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Nine residential buildings sustained varying degrees of damage, including 16- and nine-story blocks, he added.

Twenty-one people were wounded, including an 8-year-old, according to Syniehubov and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

The attack came after another late Friday that wounded 15 people, including a 10- and 12-year-old, as Russian airstrikes hit three Kharkiv neighborhoods, Terekhov said.

According to Ukrainian officials, KAB-type aerial glide bombs were used in both attacks, a retrofitted Soviet weapon that has for months laid waste to eastern Ukraine.

Russia also launched 80 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defense shot down 71 drones, and another six were lost on location due to electronic warfare countermeasures, the statement said.

Farther south, a 12-year-old girl and a woman died after a Russian drone struck a passenger car in the city of Nikopol, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. Two others, including a 4-year-old, suffered wounds.

A Russian artillery strike also killed one person in the eastern town of Kurakhove, regional prosecutors said, as Russian forces continue their grinding advance westwards through Ukraine's industrial Donetsk province.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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