A Russian cruise missile struck a five-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Saturday, killing at least 10 people — including two children — and wounding 16 others, Ukrainian officials said. The attack was part of a broader overnight barrage in which Russia fired 29 missiles and 480 drones across the country.
The Kharkiv strike came as a new round of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine, planned for that week, was forced to postpone amid international attention diverted to the conflict in the Middle East — compounding pressure on Ukraine as it enters its fifth year of war.
The strike and its victims
Emergency workers combed through rubble in Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast, searching for survivors after the missile hit the residential building, officials said. Among the dead were a primary schoolteacher and her son, a second-grade student, who were killed in their home, and an eighth-grade student who died alongside her mother, according to Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor.
The regional Prosecutor’s Office said the building was struck by an Izdeliye-30, a new Russian cruise missile. Ukrainian reports described it as a subsonic, air-launched weapon with a range of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) and a satellite navigation system more resistant to electronic jamming — a weapon Russia has recently begun deploying against Ukraine.
Zelenskyy calls for international response
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called for allied action. “There must be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” he said in a post on X. “Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support must continue. We count on active work with the European Union to guarantee greater protection for our people.”
Zelenskyy said he had received a request from the United States for support in defending against Iranian-designed drones now being used in the Middle East and gave the order for Ukrainian equipment and experts to be provided. Russia has fired tens of thousands of Iranian-designed drones at Ukraine since invading more than four years ago, and has scaled up domestic production of similar munitions.
Scope of the overnight attack
According to preliminary data, Ukrainian air defense systems downed 19 of the 29 missiles and 453 of the 480 drones fired overnight. Hits from 9 missiles and 26 strike drones were recorded at 22 locations across the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strike targeted Ukrainian military factories, energy facilities and air bases.
In the Kyiv region, damage from falling debris was reported in three districts. In the southern Odesa region, 80 firefighters were deployed to battle fires at infrastructure facilities struck by drones. Ukraine’s state rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported that damage to rail infrastructure forced changes to several routes in the center-west of the country.
Diplomatic backdrop
The war in the Middle East has drawn international attention away from Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II, Ukrainian and Western officials have noted. A planned round of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine was postponed that week as a result, according to the Associated Press.