President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian Federation’s (RF) continuous bombardment of the city Kharkiv, and said the Kremlin was committing war crimes by targeting civilians and civilian homes, a declaration published by the Presidential Administration on Monday said.
RF artillery rockets on Sunday pounded Kharkiv’s central Kultura, Shevchenko and Davrina streets, deep within city limits. Web cam images uploaded to social media or aired by independent news agencies showed the warheads blasting craters in sidewalks, throwing fragments and splinters into parked cars and apartment walls, and knocking down pedestrians.
According to a Kharkiv city council statement, the barrage struck eighteen residential buildings and no military targets. Worst-hit was a five-story low-rise, whose top two floors were set on fire and destroyed. Five civilians died and fifteen were injured, Zelensky said.
Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) units broke a month-long RF siege of Kharkiv last week, but Moscow’s forces have remained in the vicinity and continued a daily bombardment of Ukraine’s second-largest city, in an apparent attempt to break Ukrainian will to fight by killing civilians and destroying civilian homes, businesses and infrastructure.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terehiv in a Monday statement said that although food and emergency supplies are reaching the city “there is no safe places anywhere” from RF shells, mortar rounds, artillery rockets, missiles and air strikes. According to Zelensky, from Wednesday through Sunday RF long-range fires have killed 18 Kharkiv civilians and injured 106 civilians. Terehiv called on city residents to evacuate if possible.
A Sunday Kharkiv city hall statement said more than 600 homes or apartment buildings have been so badly damaged by RF weapons, that they cannot be repaired. Also completely destroyed are 50 schools and “several” medical facilities, including a maternity hospital, the statement said.
Kremlin forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and began bombarding Kharkiv on Feb 28. The city has been shelled or otherwise fired on almost daily since then.
“The world should react to what the Russians are doing,” Zelensky said. “These attacks on our people must be stopped.”
