Kiev [Ukraine], September 23: A Russian airstrike on an apartment block in Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine injured 21 people, while some 145 kilometres south-west of the city, dozens of homes were without power after overnight Russian drone strikes, local officials said on Sunday.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram an 8-year-old and two teenagers were among the injured. About 80 residents had to be evacuated.
Two people, a 17-year-old boy and a woman, 39, were seriously injured while others suffered moderate injuries. Two high-rise buildings were severely damaged, while others mainly had their windows blown out.
Syniehubov posted photos showing rubble in front of a multi-storey building and a burnt out car. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said dozens of people had been evacuated and several cars were on fire.
Before the all-out invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kharkiv was the second-largest city in Ukraine with a population of more than 1 million.
At the beginning of the war, Moscow tried to take the city, which is only about 30 kilometres from the border, but failed. Since then, Kharkiv has been one of the most heavily bombarded cities in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in Poltava, dozens of homes are without power following overnight attacks by Russian drones on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Poltava Governor Filip Pronin reported on Telegram.
Engineers were working to restore power, Pronin said. There had luckily been no injuries, he added.
Reports from Kiev said that Russian forces launched 80 Iranian-made Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukrainian territory overnight, of which 71 had been downed and a further six diverted from their path by electronic interference.
The Ukrainian military does not normally report on damage caused.
Moscow is increasingly targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months as it has done since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Source: Qatar Tribune