Kyiv: Russian forces launched a coordinated attack overnight with drones and missiles on Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, killing at least six people and injuring 11 more, according to local officials. Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the missile strikes on the city damaged residential buildings, a gas station, a kindergarten, a cafe, a shop and cars.

“As of this morning, there are 6 dead and 10 wounded as a result of the night strike on Shevchenkivskyi district,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov earlier said on the Telegram app. Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast, has been a frequent Russian target, with attacks intensifying in recent weeks. On Wednesday, a drone attack on the city killed four people and badly damaged apartment blocks.

Russia fired 32 Iranian-made Shahed drones and six missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the air force commander. Ukrainian air defence forces shot down three cruise missiles and 28 drones, Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk said in a statement. “Russian killers continue to terrorise Ukrainians and attack Kharkiv and other peaceful cities,” he said.

The Russian military has not commented on the strikes, but said that Ukraine on Saturday morning fired Vampire rockets at Russia. All 10 of them were shot down over Russia’s border region of Belgorod by air defence systems, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

Russian forces advancing in Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, told Politico in an interview published on Thursday, that he saw Kharkiv as the most likely target for any new Russian offensive in May or June. Air raid alerts remained in effect for Kharkiv and most of the country, including the capital Kyiv, for several hours after the strikes.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, the new commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Russian forces were advancing on the ground in Ukraine and pushing back against them was “difficult”. Syrksyi said the situation in the Bakhmut area in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region was particularly challenging.

He said Russian forces are carrying out offensive operations day and night, using assault groups with the support of armoured vehicles, as well as assaults on foot. Fierce battles are taking place east of the town of Chasiv Yar, which Ukraine still controls and which is located near the occupied city of Bakhmut.

The fiercest battles were occurring in Pervomaiskyi and Vodyanyi near Avdiivka, another city in the Donetsk region occupied by Russian forces, said Syrskyi, adding that the Chasiv Yar area remains under Ukrainian control and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed.

A rapid Russian advance on Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified town with a pre-war population of 12,200 situated west of the ruined Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, would be a grim setback for Kyiv. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s soldiers are trying to dig in, facing long-term shortages of artillery shells with US aid stuck in Congress.

(with inputs from agencies)

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