Russian Strikes on Kharkiv: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticized his western friends for not offering enough military support to repel Russian attacks as Russia barraged Kharkiv with missiles on Thursday, killing seven people in a printing house.
After months of bombardment, Moscow’s forces on May 10 began a land invasion into the northern part of the city’s surrounding territory. According to Kyiv, this advance has temporarily halted on two fronts of attack.
According to Economic Times, the authorities, Russia fired roughly fifteen missiles against Kharkiv and the neighboring town of Liubotyn. The missiles were primarily aimed at the city’s transportation infrastructure and a sizable printing house that employed about fifty people at the time of the strike.
From a huge hole ripped in the building’s roof, smoke billowed forth. Weary rescue personnel removed remains from the structure and placed them in plastic bags. There were charred book pages all over the place.Reporters were informed by regional governor Oleh Syniehubov at the scene, “There are no military facilities either here or nearby.”
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Officials reported that 28 more individuals were hurt in the attacks. The missiles were fired from Russia’s neighboring Belgorod region, which Russian forces used to commence their incursion on May 10, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
Following attacks on multiple of its locations in Kharkiv and the surrounding area, the state railway firm announced that six of its employees had also sustained injuries.
According to reports, Russia also dropped guided bombs on the nearby town of Derhachi, causing damage to private homes and at least 13 further injuries.
One of the largest printing facilities in Kharkiv and all of Ukraine.
Yesterday, a Russian missile strike killed 7 people here. My condolences go out to their families and friends. 21 people were injured. The printing facility was destroyed, and tens of thousands of books were… pic.twitter.com/ECJsrmv7Bi
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 24, 2024
Zelenskiy criticized Kyiv’s foreign allies in a social media post for failing to supply the country with adequate air defense systems and for enabling Ukraine to utilize weaponry supplied by the West to attack missile installations within Russia.
He declared, “This weakness is not ours; rather, it is the weakness of the world, which has not dared to deal with the terrorists exactly as they deserve for the past three years.”
The frustration expressed by the Ukrainian leader in his speech has increased as his forces, outnumbered and outgunned, have failed to repel intense Russian attacks across a stretch of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of front line.
The Ukrainian troops, some of whom have been engaged in combat since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, were further taxed by the recent aggressive push by Russian forces into the northern part of the Kharkiv region this month.
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Following their troops’ halt on two main lines of attack, Russia is now sending reserve forces to support Ukraine’s assault operations in the northern areas of the region, according to a statement issued by the country’s senior commander.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed that Russian soldiers had moved to a defensive position close to the village of Lyptsi as a result of ongoing street fighting in the border town of Vovchansk.
The second-biggest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, is around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border. In recent months, Kharkiv has seen some of the most frequent and intense airstrikes.
Zelenskiy urged on Kyiv’s allies to intensify their participation in the fight, particularly by destroying Russian missiles above Ukraine, in an interview with Reuters this week.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday that Ukraine urgently needs more Patriot batteries built in the United States, echoing Zelenskiy’s request for additional air defense systems.
