Russia hits Kharkiv with missile strikes, killing at least 6

Russian forces hit Kharkiv and the nearby town of Lyubotyn with a barrage of at least 15 simultaneous missile strikes on Thursday, stepping up pressure against Ukraine’s second-largest city.

The attack killed at least six civilians and wounded another 16, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram. S-300 missiles damaged local transport infrastructure as well as a printing facility in Kharkiv, setting off a large fire, according to Telegram reports from Synehubov and city mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Russian forces are taking advantage of insufficient air defense and Ukraine’s lack of capability to destroy missile launchers located near its borders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on social platform X.

Kremlin troops opened a new front in the Kharkiv region this month, putting additional pressure on Ukraine’s increasingly fragile defenses.