Russian Strikes Kill Seven in Kharkiv

Russian missile strikes killed at least seven people, including two children, and injured more than ten others when a five-story residential building was hit in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. The attack occurred overnight into Saturday as part of a wider barrage of drones and missiles targeting critical infrastructure across the country.

Oleh Syniehubov, the region's governor, reported that the missile damaged multiple buildings in Kharkiv, including a neighboring structure where the entrance was destroyed and upper floors were affected. Emergency workers are combing through the rubble searching for survivors who may have been buried when the building collapsed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks, stating that Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting vital infrastructure in Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi regions, and the railway in Zhytomyr region. Damage was recorded in at least nine other regions, including Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Cherkasy.

Zelenskyy called for an international response to what he described as 'savage strikes against life,' urging continued support from Ukraine's partners in air defense and weapons supplies. He emphasized that Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure.

Ukraine is awaiting White House approval for a major drone production agreement proposed by Kyiv last year, Zelenskyy said Thursday. The proposed U.S.-Ukraine deal would cover various types of drones and air defenses that operate as a single system capable of protecting against swarms of hundreds or even thousands of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and missiles.

Russia has fired more than 57,000 Shahed drones at Ukraine since the invasion began just over four years ago. The conflict unfolding in the Middle East might prompt American officials to sign the drone production proposal, Zelenskyy said during a visit to Romania.