LONDON — At least 19 people were injured and 41 buildings damaged by a Russian missile attack in the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight Monday, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow’s troops launched a new offensive in the region and claimed battlefield gains along the eastern front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that the impact of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile in Kharkiv was part of a multi-pronged attack on Ukrainian cities overnight. Kyiv, Odessa and Zaporizhzhia were also targeted.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had shot down 145 drones, of which 71 were downed and 71 were in flight. A UAV flew into Belarusian airspace, the air force said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, has said that it has shot down 23 Ukrainian drones in various regions.
A policeman stands after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine on November 25, 2024.
Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Reuters
Vladislav Shapsha, governor of Kaluga Oblast, which borders Moscow Oblast to the southwest, said falling drone debris had sparked a fire at a manufacturing facility in the region.
“In total, since yesterday evening, Russia has used about one and a half hundred drone strikes, aerial bombs and missiles against more than 10 of our regions,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram early Monday morning.
“These Russian attacks on Ukrainian life can be stopped,” he added. “With pressure, sanctions, blocking the occupiers’ access to the components they use to create instruments of terror, arms packages to Ukraine and a decision that must be undeniable.”
Just 19 kilometers from the Russian border, Ukraine’s “second city” Kharkiv has come under near-constant attacks since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022.
Russian forces did not encircle and capture Kharkiv in the early weeks of the invasion, but fighting has continued along the shared border throughout the conflict.
The Ukrainian General Staff said in a Facebook post on Monday that Russian forces had launched an attack on the settlement of Kozacha Lopan, about 2 miles from the border and 16 miles north of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian military blogger Deep State Telegram reported that Russian forces also launched an amphibious operation along the Oskil River in the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian troops are pushing towards the strategic objective of Kupyansk.
Russian forces established a blockade on the Ukrainian-controlled side of the waterway, Deep State wrote. The blogger’s claims could not be immediately verified.
