Russia continued to blast Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, following up on one of the most powerful attacks since the start of its 2022 full-scale invasion with a new round of air strikes late on June 7.
After early morning strikes killed at least three people in Kharkiv on June 7, a new assault later killed at least one more person and injured dozens as midnight approached, Ukrainian officials said.
“As of now, more than 40 wounded and one person have been killed in Kharkiv due to the strike of Russian glide bombs,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following the latest assault on the city with a prewar population of 1.1 million.
Air-dropped glide bombs are equipped with glide kits and precision-guidance systems that can travel for up to 60 kilometers before striking with devastating force.
“Another brutal murder,” Zelenskyy said of the evening attack that reportedly killed a 30-year-old woman.
Later reports said more than 50 people had been wounded in the Kharkiv attacks.
“It does not make any military sense. Purely terrorism. And this has been going on for more than three years of a full-scale war. This cannot be ignored,” the Ukrainian leader said as he urged the country’s Western allies to intensify pressure on the Kremlin to end the war.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow claimed it had launched strikes against "military-industrial" facilities in Ukraine. The Kremlin denies that it targets civilian sites despite widespread evidence of such attacks.
Details of attacks cannot immediately be verified.
Hours earlier, barrages killed at least three people in Kharkiv and four others in Kherson and Lutsk in western Ukraine, and wounded dozens of others, according to authorities.
The Kharkiv attack began in the early hours of June 7, with residents reporting waves of explosions as Russian forces struck simultaneously with missiles, drones, and guided bombs.
Kharkiv’s mayor described the assault as “the most powerful offensive since the onset of the full war,” with both high-rise and private residences, educational institutions, and critical infrastructure targeted.
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Kharkiv Hit By Worst Russian Strikes Its Seen In War
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 215 drones and missiles, with 174 either shot down or neutralized by electronic warfare measures.
Images from the aftermath show charred, partially destroyed buildings and vehicles, as emergency responders worked to rescue the injured and clear debris. One of the city’s civilian industrial sites was hit by 40 drones, a missile, and four bombs, sparking large fires and raising fears that more victims could be trapped beneath the rubble.
Kharkiv, located just a few dozen kilometers from the Russian border, has endured relentless bombardment throughout the three-year conflict.
Separately, a couple was killed as a result of Russian strikes in Kherson.
SEE ALSO: How Ukraine's 'Spiderweb' Drone Attacks May Change Modern WarfareThe escalation comes amid faltering cease-fire negotiations and follows a recent Ukrainian drone operation that damaged Russian military assets, including warplanes, deep inside Russian territory, which embarrassed the Kremlin.
"No matter what anyone says, these [latest] Russian strikes are not 'retaliation' but acts of destruction," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
"The complete destruction of life -- that is what they want. And in absolutely every city and village on the occupied territory, it is clearly seen what the arrival of Russia means."
During a June 5 press conference at the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, US President Donald Trump compared the war in Ukraine to a fight between children.
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy, they hate each other, and they're fighting in a park," Trump told reporters. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swiftly rejected Trump’s analogy when asked during an ABC interview whether he believed Trump understood the suffering in Ukraine.
"We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park. He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids," he said.