A Russian glide bomb hit a residential apartment block in Kharkiv, destroying the top four floors and injuring at least 35 people.
The attack left flames fanning out of windows on the ninth floor of the 12-storey building. Debris and rubble littered the leafy car park area below where bloodied civilians rushed for cover.
Three children are reported to have been injured in the attack, although not seriously.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said that the attack showed that the West needed to allow Ukraine to fire missiles at airfields and other strategically important sites in Russia to stop the Kremlin having free reign to bomb Ukrainian cities.
“The world must help protect us from Russian military aircraft, and the dozens of guided aerial bombs that take the lives of Ukrainians every day. This terror can be stopped. But to stop terror, you need to stop the fear of strong decisions that are objectively necessary,” he said.
Video showed rescue workers helping injured people, including the elderly, away from the bombed-out zone as thick black smoke poured from an apartment. Some people were lying on the ground, injured. All the windows in the apartment block had been shattered.
Russia fires modified bombs fitted with basic fins and guiding systems at Ukrainian cities. Its warplanes take off from Russian airfields and fire the glide bombs 25 miles away from their target.
Joe Biden is under increasing pressure to allow Ukraine to fire West-built long-range missiles at targets in Russia but the US is worried that this may escalate the war. Boris Johnson and five former Conservative defence ministers have lobbied Sir Keir Starmer to unilaterally allow Ukraine to fire British-made Storm Shadow missiles at Russia.
Officials in Kharkiv said that the Russian warplane had taken off from the neighbouring Russian region of Belgorod and then deliberately targeted the residential apartment block in the attack.
Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said: “The approach was made by tactical aviation from the Belgorod region, so far one hit on a multi-story building has been recorded in the city.”
