Russia pummeled Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, overnight on Saturday, using a swarm of drones, bombs and missiles that killed at least three people, according to the local authorities. It was the latest in an escalating series of Russian air assaults on urban centers that have further dampened hopes for a cease-fire.
Located just 20 miles from the Russian border, Kharkiv is a frequent target of Russian air assaults. What set the latest attack apart was the sheer volume of weapons launched in a short span of time.
The local authorities said that within 90 minutes, Russia struck the city with nearly 50 drones, two missiles and four glide bombs, powerful guided weapons that carry hundreds of pounds of explosives. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said that 40 explosions were heard in the city. He described the overnight assault as “the most powerful attack” on the city since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began more than three years ago.
Photos released by Ukraine’s emergency services showed the upper floors of a residential block ablaze, with white smoke pouring into the early morning sky. In other images, rescuers sifted through the charred wreckage of a gutted apartment. Parts of the photos were blurred, likely to hide the remains of two people killed in the strike, according to the rescuers.
A third person died elsewhere in Kharkiv, and about 20 others were injured in the assault.
The attack came as Russian forces about 100 miles north of Kharkiv pushed deeper into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, seizing two more villages and advancing their effort to carve out a buffer zone along the Russia-Ukraine border.
Even in Kharkiv, a city of 1.3 million that over the years has learned to live with near-daily Russian bombardments, Saturday’s attack was a clear sign of Russia’s strategy to intensify air assaults in a bid to overwhelm and break through Ukraine’s air defenses.
It came just a day after Russia launched one of its biggest air assault of the war across Ukraine, involving more than 400 drones and over 40 missiles, in what Russia described as retaliation for Ukraine’s audacious attacks on its strategic bomber bases last weekend.
President Trump this week compared the dual air assaults between Russia and Ukraine to two fighting children who need to work out their differences before their war can end.
In an interview with ABC News released on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine responded to the comment. “We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park,” he said, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids.”
In April, a Russian missile struck a playground in Mr. Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, killing 19 civilians, including nine children. It was the deadliest strike against children since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to the United Nations.
Russia’s intensified attacks have come alongside a new offensive in the east and in the northeastern Sumy region. The push into Sumy follows Russian forces driving Ukrainian troops back from parts of Russia’s Kursk region, just across the border from Sumy.
To prevent future incursions into Kursk, Mr. Putin announced last month that Russian forces would launch an offensive in Sumy to create a buffer zone along the border. In the past three weeks, Russian troops have seized about 10 villages in the area, gaining control of roughly 75 square miles of territory.
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
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