Ukraine war briefing: people trapped after Russian strike on Kharkiv apartment block, Zelenskiy says

One person has died and at least 41 people were wounded on Sunday afternoon when a Russian guided bomb struck a multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said, adding that the bomb hit the 10th floor of the building, with the fire spreading across four storeys. Prosecutors in Kharkiv said on Telegram the body of a 94-year-old woman had been recovered from the ninth floor of the building. Twelve other buildings were also damaged, Terekhov said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday night that rescue operations were under way at the 12-storey building, with people trapped under the rubble. He said three children were among 35 people injured. “In this single strike on Kharkiv, four air bombs were dropped. One hit the building in the city, and the other three struck villages in the region,” he said. Russia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the attack but has previously denied intentionally targeting civilians despite having killed thousands of them since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Zelenskiy on Sunday again appealed for a shift in the west’s policy on the use of long-range weapons, saying Russia was carrying out at least 100 airstrikes comparable to the one that hit Kharkiv every day. “The only way to counter this terror is through a systemic solution – long-range capabilities to destroy Russian military aviation at its bases. This is an obvious, logical solution. We have already explained to all our partners why Ukraine truly needs sufficient long-range capabilities,” he said on X.

Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone and missile attacks over the weekend. The Ukrainian air force said on Sunday it shot down 10 of the 14 drones and one of the three missiles Russia launched overnight. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it downed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday over western and south-western regions, with no damage caused by the falling debris. It also said another Ukrainian drone was shot down on Sunday morning over the western Ryazan region.

Ukrainian troops are suffering high losses because western arms are arriving too slowly to equip the armed forces properly, Zelenskiy told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday. Russia has been gaining ground in parts of eastern Ukraine including around Pokrovsk. Capture of the transport hub could enable Moscow to open new lines of attack. Zelenskiy said the situation in the east was “very tough”, adding that half of Ukraine’s brigades there were not equipped.
“So you lose a lot of people. You lose people because they are not in armed vehicles … they don’t have artillery, they don’t have artillery rounds,” said Zelenskiy, speaking in English. CNN said the interview had been conducted on Friday. Zelenskiy said weapons aid packages promised by the United States and European nations were arriving very slowly. “We need 14 brigades to be ready. Until now … from these packages we didn’t equip even four,” he said. The only thing Russian president Vladimir Putin fears is the reaction of his people if the cost of the war makes them suffer, Zelenskiy said. “Make Ukraine strong, and you will see that he will sit and negotiate”.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Saturday said Washington was working on a “substantial” new aid package for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy is due to meet President Joe Biden this month and will present a plan to seek an end to the war. The main elements are security and diplomatic support, as well as military and economic aid, he said.