Kharkiv struck by “the most powerful attack” of the whole war, says the mayor, while Russia beats Ukraine again

Cnn
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Massive Russian strikes on the second largest city in Ukraine killed at least five people on Saturday, officials announced, one night after Moscow led one of the greatest air assaults in the war against Ukraine.

Russia has conducted in -depth attacks against Ukraine in recent days, in what is considered to be reprisals for a daring drone operation by kyiv who weakened more than a third of the Moscow strategic cruise missile transporters.

The city of northeast of Kharkiv – which is around 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Russian border – was shaken by “at least 40 explosions” in the early hours of Saturday, according to a telegram from Mayor Igor Terekhov.

“Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the large -scale war,” said Terekhov. “The enemy strikes simultaneously with missiles (drones) and guided air bombs. It is a pure and simple terror against peaceful Kharkiv. ”

The video published by the emergency services showed a large burning fire in a several storey building in the Osnovyanskyi district in the southwest of the city, where Terekhov said that two people had died. One person was also killed in a strike that hit a house in the Kievskyi district in the north, he said.

Russia resumed its assault on Saturday evening. He launched a new series of strikes using Glide bombs, killing two other people and wounding at least 40 others, according to Ukrainian officials.

Those who were killed were a 62 -year -old woman and man, said officials. According to Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the military administration of the Kharkiv region, according to Oleh Syniehubov, two other victims of the attack are in intensive care in an “extremely serious state”.

The objective of the second attack was a children’s playground with a miniature railway, said Terekhov.

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, called the “pure terrorism” Saturday evening attack in an article on Telegram.

“The air bombs on city civilians-even a railway for nearby children. This has no military sense. Pure terrorism,” he said in the post. “It cannot be ignored. We cannot close our eyes on this … Every day we lose our people simply because Russia feels impunity. We need difficult pressure on Russia to make peace. ”

In his daily speech later on Saturday, Zelensky said that “the Russians are preparing to continue the war and ignore all peace proposals. They must be held responsible for this. ”

The Ukrainian chief also called on the United States to send “” positive “and” specific “signals linked to the air defense of his country. Kyiv has extended an offer in the United States to buy air defense systems, Zelensky said, but he has not yet received an answer.

Last week, the Pentagon informed the congress that it will detour to the critical anti-drone technology which had been allocated to the American Air Force units in the Middle East, according to the correspondence obtained by CNN and people familiar with the problem.

Russia said earlier on Saturday that its forces had made high precision strikes overnight on Ukrainian military facilities. “Strikes have achieved their objectives. All the designated targets have been destroyed,” published the Russian Defense Ministry on Telegram.

More than 50 drones, four guided air bombs and a missile were used in the attack which also damaged a building and administrative music school in the city, according to the Kharkiv region’s prosecutor’s office.

Among the injured are a 14 -year -old girl and a month old and a half, who suffers from “acute stress”, added the office.

Ruslana Sheveleva, a resident of Kharkiv whose neighbors’ house was struck in the attack, described the chaotic scenes as people rushed to escape the building. “The house was touched, where this young man was lying,” she told Susilne, the Ukrainian public broadcaster.

“I don’t think he even understands what was going on. He died instantly. They dug his mother under the rubble. Her father, if I understand correctly, managed to get out almost alone, ”she added.

Iryna Ivanenko, another resident, said that her 26 -year -old daughter – who had been saved later by firefighters – begged her aid, trapped in her room under a high slab. “I tried to lift the slab, but it was impossible,” Ivanenko told Suspline.

Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of postponing the exchange of prisoners of war and transferring soldiers who are deceased for an “indefinite” period.

“The Ukrainian side has unexpectedly postponed the transfer of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period,” published an assistant from the Kremlin Vladimir Medinsky on Telegram. “For any reason, their negotiation team did not even appear at the point of exchange.”

An agreement to work to another exchange of prisoners was concluded in Istanbul on Monday during a second cycle of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials.

Medinsky – The head of the delegation of Russia for talks in Istanbul – said on Saturday that Moscow had given Ukraine a list of 640 injured, seriously ill and young prisoners of war.

In addition, Russia began the repatriation of more than 6,000 organizations of Ukrainian soldiers, said Medinsky. “The first batch of 1,212 frozen bodies of soldiers from the Ukrainian armed forces has already arrived in refrigerated trucks at the point of exchange. The rest is on the way,” he said.

Ukraine accused Russia of having played “dirty games”.

“The statements of today of the Russian party do not correspond to the reality or the previous agreements on the exchange of prisoners or the repatriation of the bodies,” said the siege of the coordination of Ukraine on Saturday for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The authority said that Ukraine has submitted a list of seriously injured, sick and young soldiers to exchange, but said that the lists of Russia “do not respect the agreed approach”.

“Ukraine has provided relevant comments, and the next step is now expected on the Russian side,” said authority.

Commenting on the repatriation of the soldiers’ bodies, the authority said that “an agreement has indeed been concluded”, but added that no date had been fixed for the transfer to take place.

On Saturday evening, Yevgeny Balitsky, governor of Russia, occupied parties of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region, said that Moscow would publish the names of Ukrainian soldiers whose body would be supposed to be returned that day.

In an article on Telegram, Balitsky accused kyiv of not having achieved what he had previously agreed to do.

“What is there to discuss if Ukraine refuses to accept the bodies of its dead, the agreement about what was achieved during the second stage of the negotiations,” he asked.

Several exchanges have already taken place between the two parties despite the current conflict.

Also on Saturday, the Air Force of Ukraine said that it had shot down a Russian SU-35 fighter plane as part of an “successful Air Force operation in the direction of Kursk”.

Russia did not immediately comment on the complaint, but a Russian military blogger described the plane as lost and said that the pilot had been rescued.

A day before the insurance on Kharkiv, in an apparent reprisal to the swarm of Ukrainian drone, Russia launched a dam of ballistic drones and missiles through large bands of Ukraine, killing at least six people and injuring dozens of others.

“They gave (Russian president Vladimir) Putin a reason to bomb last night,” US President Donald Trump said on Friday on the Air Force One.

Trump had previously warned Russian reprisals was imminent, after talking Wednesday with his Russian counterpart.

He was not immediately clear if Putin intended to climb additional.