Three people, including a two-year-old boy, were killed and at least 17 injured in Russian overnight strikes on Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said Monday, as Washington increases pressure on Kyiv to pursue a peace deal with Moscow.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov said a drone strike killed the toddler early Monday, just hours after a ballistic missile barrage had pounded Ukraine’s second-largest city. The missile attack shattered about 1,000 windows across residential blocks, forcing some evacuations, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov said two more people were killed and warned that more victims could be trapped under the rubble. “A woman has just been rescued from under the rubble: she is alive,” he wrote on Telegram. Six children between the ages of six and 17 were among the injured.
Rescue teams were still combing through debris on Monday morning. Reuters witnesses reported medics treating residents in the streets while emergency workers inspected damage to apartment blocks.
Kharkiv, situated near Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia, has endured relentless missile and drone assaults since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
In the neighboring Sumy region, Russian attacks injured two people, destroyed more than a dozen homes, and damaged an educational institution, local officials said.
“The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region, treacherously, at night,” regional head Oleh Hryhorov posted on Telegram.
Moscow has not commented on the latest strikes. Russia and Ukraine both deny targeting civilians, though thousands have died since the war began, the majority of them Ukrainian.
The attacks come just days after U.S. President Donald Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ending the war.
Trump, who is preparing to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington, has urged Kyiv to accept a swift settlement, saying: “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”
Written By Rodney Mbua
