At least six people were killed and nearly 60 were injured Saturday in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv from a spate of Russian missile strikes, including two guided bombs that struck a hardware store in the city’s residential area.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said about 120 people were in the hardware store when the bombs struck.
"The attack targeted the shopping center, where there were many people — this is clearly terrorism," Terekhov said.
Six people were killed, two of them store employees. About 40 people were injured, three seriously, and 16 people are missing.
"I was at my workplace. I heard the first hit and ... with my colleague, we fell to the ground. There was the second hit, and we were covered with debris. Then we started to crawl to the higher ground," Dmytro Syrotenko, 26, said, according to Reuters.
A few hours later, another missile struck an apartment building in Kharkiv, leaving a crater several meters deep in the pavement at the base of the building that also housed a post office and some shops, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app. Eighteen people were injured in the attack.
Kharkiv, Ukraine second-largest city, is about 30 kilometers from the Russian border and has come under attack for a few weeks as Russian forces have made a push into the northeast region as it tests Ukraine’s defenses along the front line farther south in the Donetsk region.
Once again, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukraine's Western allies to send more air defense systems to help keep the country's cities safe.
"When we tell world leaders that Ukraine needs sufficient air defenses, when we say we need real decisive measures to enable us to protect our people, so that Russian terrorists cannot even approach our border, we are talking about not allowing strikes like this to happen," Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly video address.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and injured during its 27-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian shelling in Belgorod
Meanwhile, Ukrainian shelling on the Belgorod region, about 10 kilometers from the border, killed four people Saturday, Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
"Ukrainian armed forces fired on the settlement of Oktyabrsky from a rocket launcher," Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
The governor said that at least 12 others, including an 8-year-old boy, were injured in the attack that also damaged houses in the area.
A woman was killed in the village of Dubovoye as she worked in her garden.
Gladkov said air defense units had intercepted 15 airborne targets.
Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield accounts.
Biden reiterates support for Ukraine
President Joe Biden reiterated Saturday that the U.S. is “standing strong with Ukraine.” During his address Saturday to the graduating class of the prestigious West Point Military Academy, Biden praised U.S. leadership in the world.
"There are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. I'm determined to keep it that way, but we are standing strong with Ukraine, and we will stand with them," he said.
Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a brutal tyrant," who was "certain that NATO would fracture" after he invaded his East European neighbor in February 2022.
"Instead, the greatest defense alliance in the history of the world is stronger than ever," said the president.
The United States will provide a new $275 million military aid package for Ukraine to help it repel Russia’s assault on Kharkiv, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Friday.
The new package includes ammunition for HIMARS, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, missiles, anti-armor systems and precision aerial munitions, the State Department said.
“Assistance from previous packages has already made it to the front lines, and we will move this new assistance as quickly as possible so the Ukrainian military can use it to defend their territory and protect the Ukrainian people,” the statement said.
In his nightly video address Friday, Zelenskyy said he visited Kharkiv on Friday and held a meeting there with military officials, heads of special services and regional and city authorities.
Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces managed to take combat control of border areas in northern parts of Kharkiv where Russian troops launched an attack this month.
His comments differ from those of Viktor Vodolatskiy, a member of Russia's State Duma, or lower house of parliament. Vodolatskiy was quoted by the state-run Tass news agency as saying Russian forces controlled more than half the territory of the town of Vovchansk, five kilometers inside the Ukrainian border.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Zelenskyy will travel to Portugal on Tuesday after his planned visit to Spain, CNN Portugal reported Saturday.
The "Ukrainian president's arrival in the Iberian Peninsula is scheduled for the beginning of next week but will always depend on the course of the war in Ukraine in the coming hours," said the news network.
Spanish radio station Cadena SER said Friday that Zelenskyy will travel to Spain on Sunday.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
