Russian strikes kill seven, create new panic across Ukraine

KYIV: A wave of Russian missiles hit Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities killing seven people and wounding dozens, setting ablaze and toppling apartment blocks and creating new panic among exhausted residents.

Rescue workers in Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second city that is near Russia’s border — hauled survivors from smouldering piles of rubble, AFP journalists reported.

The regional governor said six Kharkiv residents were killed in the overnight barrage and another 51 wounded, as medics treated survivors in blood-soaked clothes and bandages.

Oleksandra Terekhovich ran into the corridor of her home for protection when she heard the first explosion. The second blast hit the building next door, shattering her windows and door, she said.

“There are no more tears. Our country has been going through what has been happening for two years now. We live with horror inside of us,” she told AFP. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko praised “heroic” rescuers that he said had pulled 27 survivors from rubble. He posted dramatic footage of workers cutting free a man who had been trapped in freezing temperatures for hours.

Ukraine’s army chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russian forces fired 41 missiles in the barrage and his forces had downed 21 of them.

AFP reporters in Kyiv heard air raid sirens echo over the capital at night, followed by a series of loud blasts as defence systems targeted the aerial onslaught.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 20 people were wounded in the attack on Kyiv that set buildings and cars ablaze in central districts.

Daryna Bodenchuk, a 17-year-old interior design student, said she was in her Kyiv dormitory at the time of the strikes. They shook the building and blew open the door of the basement where she and others had taken shelter, she said. “It’s really scary. A window was broken also in our dormitory. It was loud,” she told AFP.

In the region around Kyiv, officials said four people were wounded after residential blocks, private homes and farm buildings were damaged. Further south, in the city of Pavlograd, the Dnipropetrovsk governor said one person had been killed and another wounded.

Separately, the governor of the southern region of Kherson, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, said a 70-year-old man had been killed by Russian forces, without giving details.