Russian missile strike on Ukrainian second city Kharkiv injures at least 44

A Russian missile strike on three different areas of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv has injured at least 44 people, the Kharkiv Prosecutor General’s Office said on Sunday.

According to Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov, the barrage of missiles struck the Kharkiv Sports Palace, a shopping centre in the Saltivskyi district and a residential building in the city’s Kyiv district.

The Russian military had “attacked in broad daylight places where hundreds of Kharkiv residents go every day,” Synyehubov said in a subsequent post, adding: “This is real terrorism!”

A search and rescue operation at the Kharkiv Sports Palace was ongoing, Synyehubov added, where he said that one employee had already been pulled safely from the rubble, but that there may still be others trapped underneath, after at least six incoming Russian missiles struck the sports complex and the surrounding area.

“Russia is terrorising Kharkiv again,” Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky wrote on Telegram shortly after the attack on Sunday, stressing that all the missiles had been used to target civilian infrastructure.

Urging the use of “all the world’s necessary forces” to end Russian terror, Zelensky reiterated the Ukrainian government’s frequently repeated call on Western governments to free the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from its restrictions on its use of Western-donated weapons.

“This does not require extraordinary forces, but rather just sufficient courage on the part of the leaders — the courage to give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself,” Zelensky continued.