On Saturday, local authorities stated that a Russian drone strike on a petrol station in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv killed seven people, three of whom were children, and damaged nearly half a street.
On Telegram, Oleg Synegubov, Kharkiv regional governor wrote, “A whole family of 5 people died in a fire in a private house: a husband and wife and their three children (seven-year-old, four-year-old, and seven-month-old boys)”.
He went on to say that the woman and boys had sought shelter in the bathroom while the man’s body was discovered in a passage of the house. “One child was missing”, he continued.
“In another house, a 66-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife were killed”, Synegubov reported.
The attack with Iranian-made Shahed drones sprayed surrounding homes with burning fuel, forcing at least 50 people to flee, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov noted earlier.
“The enemy’s Shaheds hit a petrol station, causing burning fuel to spill out burning 15 homes — or half the street”, Terekhov continued.
Kharkiv regional prosecutor Oleksandr Filachkov claimed three drones targeted Kharkiv’s Nemyshlyanskyi area.
“As a result, an object of critical infrastructure was destroyed. There was a large amount of fuel, which is why the consequences of the fire were so terrible”, he stated, referring to the petrol station.
Saturday’s strike came after a series of night-time attacks on Kharkiv and a village east of the regional capital.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, Russia launched 31 attack drones overnight on the eastern Kharkiv and southern Odesa, 23 of which were shot down.
NATO, meanwhile, urged Europe to boost its arms production to support Ukraine and avoid potential decades of confrontation with Moscow, ahead of a major meeting of defence ministers in Brussels and the war’s second anniversary.
The alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg stated, “We need to reconstitute and expand our industrial base faster, to increase deliveries to Ukraine and refill our stocks”.
