KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia used guided bombs in airstrikes on the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday for the first time since 2022, killing at least one person and wounding 16, local officials said.
Announcing the toll, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov described the attack as “another act of bloody terror against Ukrainians” and said four children were among the wounded.
Three residential buildings were damaged, the interior ministry said on the Telegram messenger. Terekhov said a medical facility was also damaged and local police said a school had been hit.
Police cordoned off a five-storey residential building that had been hit, its windows blown out and balconies badly damaged, Reuters television footage showed.
Debris was strewn across the area in front of the building and a covered body lay on the bloodied ground next to an abandoned bicycle.
Kharkiv and the surrounding region have frequently been attacked with missiles and drones since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, but the use of large-calibre guided bombs was unusual.
“Kharkiv was hit by aerial bombs – for the first time since 2022,” Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the regional police, said on Facebook.
Regional governor Oleh Synehubov also reported the use of guided munitions on Wednesday.
Russia denies targeting civilians although the war has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and destroyed towns and cities.
(Reporting by Vitalii Hnidyi in Kharkiv, Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk; Editing by Alison Williams and Timothy Heritage)
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