A major television tower was toppled in Ukraine's war-battered city of Kharkiv on Monday, April 22, after bombardments from Russia forces, as the country's head of military intelligence warned the situation on the front lines would likely deteriorate in coming weeks.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, saw the red-and-white spire of the 240-meter structure toppled after local officials reported a barrage by Russian forces. Images circulating social media showed plumes of gray smoke billowing around the large antenna and its upper half careening to the ground following an apparent strike.
"The occupiers attacked a television infrastructure facility in Kharkiv," the region's governor Oleh Syniehubov announced on social media. "The employees were in hiding during the alarm. There were no casualties," he added, but television broadcasting had been disrupted.
The tower was last hit in the early days of the invasion, when Russian ground forces nearly captured the city, and Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow is likely to push hard to gain more ground, likely including near Kharkiv, in the coming weeks. Kharkiv has been shelled persistently since and the TV tower was struck in March 2022.
Also on Monday, Ukrainian officials in eastern and southern Ukraine said that Russian attacks had wounded several people. In the southern city of Kherson, officials said Russian shelling wounded two people while the interior ministry said a man was wounded in Selydove, a town in the Donetsk region.
Russia also announced that it made gains towards the town of Chasiv Yar, a key battleground now, also in the Donetsk region. Taking control of Chasiv Yar's strategic heights would open the road for Russia to other important towns in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
These attacks came hours after the head of Ukraine's military intelligence said the situation was worsening at the front, and Russia announced the capture of Novomykhailivka, a village around 20 kilometers away from Vuhledar, which Russian forces have been trying to capture.
Moscow's forces have steadily been gaining ground in the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin has claimed as part of Russia. Outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces have for months struggled to hold back Russian troops, who are expected to soon step up their offensive.
The claim of Novomykhailivka's capture from the Russian defence ministry came just after the head of Ukrainian military intelligence warned that fighting for his country's forces in the east would likely get much harder in the coming weeks.
"In our opinion, a rather difficult situation awaits us in the near future," said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence. "But there will be problems starting from mid-May. I am talking about the front in particular," he said in an interview with the BBC's Ukrainian service. Yet he added that while the situation would probably worsen for Ukrainian forces, the fighting would not become "catastrophic." "Armageddon will not happen," he said.