A bus stained in blood following a shelling on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 22, 2024, amid the Russian invasion. At least 10 people were wounded in a glide bomb attack, according to the mayor of Kharkiv Igor Terekhov. Photo by Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE
Sept. 22 (UPI) — At least 18 high-rise buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, were damaged by Russian military attacks overnight, the mayor reported Sunday.
Eight people were hospitalized as a result of the attack, according to city officials. One house was seriously damaged. Victims of the attacks are being housed in hostels, and volunteers are providing aid for those who need it, the city council said.
“The communal services and volunteers are actively working to deal with the consequences of the shelling. We are checking the communications,” City Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a post on Telegram. “Water and electricity supply has already been restored to some houses. We will restore everything. Unfortunately, many people turned to doctors for help. Two victims are in a very serious condition.”
Terekhpov said the intensity of the shelling of the city has increased recently, with attacks occuring both during the day and at night. He urged residents not to ignore air raid siren warnings of impending attacks.
It’s the latest in a series of Russian attacks on residential buildings in Ukraine. One person was killed and others injured in a Russian aerial bombing of a residential building in Kharkiv earlier this month, officials said. Some of the injured were children.
As the multi-year battle between Russia and Ukraine drags on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday thanked workers in a Scranton, Penn., ammunition factory producing munitions for his country’s fight against Russian ground forces.
Zelensky is also scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York and then travel to Washington on Thursday to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Zelensky has adamantly asked for additional funding from the United States and other allies in the West, including Britain
Zelensky has been asking the United States for permission to use longer-range missile systems that would reach deeper inside the Russian interior, potentially reaching the capital.
But the Defense Department has said that Ukraine can already strike Moscow with Ukrainian-produced drones, and officials have been cautious about the implications of a Ukrainian strike on the Russian capital with a U.S.-made missile.
Ukraine has fired as many as 8,000 155-millimeter shells per day during its war with Russia, which has depleted U.S.-manufactured stockpiles. That prompted concern that the U.S. military could not sustain its defense if another major conventional war broke out.
That prompted the United States to increase production to more than 40,000 155-millimeter rounds a month, with plans to reach 100,000.
The ammunition is just one of the many forms of assistance the United States and allies are sending to Ukraine. The United states has been the largest donor, providing $56 billion of the $106 billion that NATO and other allies have invested.