By In a chilling escalation of the ongoing conflict, Russia unleashed a punishing wave of missile, kamikaze drone, and artillery attacks on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv last night.
The bombardment has raised fears that Vladimir Putin may be seeking to seize Ukraine’s second-largest city, as shocking images and videos from the devastated metropolis show several residential buildings ablaze and rubble littering the streets.
Olena Kurylo, a 54-year-old teacher who gained international recognition as the ‘Face of the War’ after her home was destroyed in Moscow’s initial assault on February 24, 2022, expressed the growing concern among Kharkiv’s residents.
“We are not sleeping, again, just now was the tenth air raid alert of the night,” Olena told reporters, exhausted from yet another sleepless night. She feared that this attack could be “the start of the Kharkiv assault – and that we will all perish here.”
Despite the relentless bombardment, Olena and many other residents remain defiant, refusing to leave their homeland. “This is our land. This is home. There is no reason why our huge neighbour is destroying us.
There is no excuse for millions of broken lives,” Olena said, turning her ire towards Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she described as a “mental, ugly, impotent old man, the deranged maniac.”
Governor Oleh Sinehubov reported that three residential houses were set alight and destroyed, with dozens more damaged in the overnight attack, which targeted both infrastructure and residential areas.
Two people, including an 11-year-old child, were injured in the strikes, though no deaths have been reported thus far.
Ukraine’s air defence systems successfully destroyed 10 attack drones, but two guided missiles launched by Moscow’s forces are believed to have caused the damage to residential buildings.
The intensified strikes on Kharkiv come just one day after Ukraine announced limitations on power supplies across the country and warned of possible blackouts following a ‘massive’ wave of Russian missile and drone attacks targeting the country’s battered energy system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s attack as “deliberate, calculated, and sneaky,” emphasizing that the strikes targeted civilian infrastructure and life itself.
Despite the escalating attacks, Ukraine has demonstrated its ability to strike back, destroying another oil refinery in Russia’s Kaluga region with a kamikaze drone attack yesterday.
Footage showed a massive inferno at the First Plant processing facility, occurring just hours after Ukraine flew another attack drone across almost 950 miles of Russia – a record distance – to impact the giant Salavat plant in Bashkortostan.
As the conflict continues to rage, Russian President Vladimir Putin has opted for continuity in his government, re-appointing technocrat Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister.
Mishustin, credited with guiding Russia through the chaos inflicted by Putin’s decision to go to war, is seen as a sign of stability in the face of the ongoing conflict.
The world watches with bated breath as the situation in Kharkiv and the surrounding regions continues to unfold, with the resilience of the Ukrainian people being tested once again in the face of relentless Russian aggression.
