A firefighter stands amidst the destroyed printing house in Kharkiv, following a series of Russian attacks in northeastern Ukraine on May 23rd.
On Thursday, Russian missiles hit various places in Kharkiv, including a printing house, the main city in the region. Seven people died in the attack as Russian forces move forward.
Russian soldiers have made progress in Ukraine, taking advantage of weak defenses. Over the last two weeks, they’ve been moving closer to Kharkiv. The region was under Russian control earlier in the conflict but was later reclaimed by Ukrainian forces.
Volunteers carry the body of someone who died in the Russian attack on a printing house in Kharkiv on Thursday.
All seven people who died, including at least five women, were civilians employed by the Factor-Druk printing company in the city of Kharkiv, the capital of the region. The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, confirmed this. Sixteen others were injured at the printing house, which is situated south of the city center, while seven more were injured elsewhere.
After the attack, pictures showed the factory partially destroyed, with part of its front blown away.
Factor-Druk, which claims to publish about a third of the country’s books and 10% of its newspapers, provided this information on its website.
In the early morning, the Ukrainian state railway network was also targeted, according to a statement from the company. Six workers were injured, the statement said. A CNN team in the area observed two craters and smoke near a railway line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the “extremely brutal Russian attack” on Kharkiv and the town of Lyubotyn, highlighting the vulnerability of Kyiv’s air defenses against Moscow’s renewed assault.
“Russian terrorists are exploiting Ukraine’s insufficient air defense and inability to reliably destroy terrorist launchers near our borders,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Earlier this month, the US approved a $400 million package of air defense munitions and other weapons for Ukraine. However, senior officials in Kyiv have cautioned that this recent influx of aid may not be enough to halt further Russian advances.