Ukraine-Russia war: Kharkiv high-rise hit by Russian airstrike

A Russian air strike has hit a high-rise residential building in Kharkiv, local officials said, as Russian forces continued to make deeper advances.

There was no immediate mention of casualties or the extent of the damage, according to the regional governor, who warned there was a threat of more strikes coming.

More than 7,000 people have fled Kharkiv since Russia launched its ground invasion on Friday as Kyiv’s top general warned that while the situation was stabilising, his troops are outgunned and outnumbered.

Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said that when the situation is stabilised in Kharkiv he expects Russia to launch a new attack in the Sumy region.  

Russia’s Tass state news agency said that the western and northern parts of Vovchansk, the town that has seen the bulk of the fighting around Kharkiv since Friday, have fallen under the control of Russian forces. Street fighting was ongoing in the town, Tass said. Kyiv said the situation was “under control”.

Moscow later claimed to have captured another village, Bugruvatka, and “advanced deep into the enemy defence.”

Ukraine’s spy chief, General Kyrylo Budanov, has warned Russian forces are massing for another attack northwest of Kharkiv.

But he has also told Ukrainian media that the situation in the Kharkiv region was “stable” and Russian forces were holding off from attacking Sumy, a border town 90 miles northwest of Kharkiv.