CNN
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Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russian forces had attacked an apartment building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing one person and wounding at least 40. Others are feared to be trapped under rubble.
Kharkiv’s military governor, Oleh Siniekhbov, said three of those injured when a guided bomb hit the 12-story building were children.
At least 14 people were hospitalized as a result of the attack and one person is reported missing.
“There may be people under the rubble,” Sinievbov said. “Search and rescue operations are continuing.”
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said one resident refused to take his dog with him to safety. “Every life is precious to our rescuers, which is why they managed to rescue both the man and his dog from the smoke-filled 12th floor apartment,” he added.
A video shared online by the minister showed the dog being lifted into the air by an emergency crane and reaching the roof of a building where it was received by one of the rescue workers.
The attack sparked a fire on the ninth floor and completely destroyed three apartments. The attack also damaged dozens of cars and shattered hundreds of windows.
“Residents are being evacuated. Specialized agencies, humanitarian, international and Ukrainian organizations are responding to the scene,” Snyevbov said.
“This is civilian infrastructure,” said Dmytro Rubinet, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner. “Russia is flagrantly violating human rights and international humanitarian law. It must respond now.”
Kharkiv lies close to the border with Russia and has come under frequent attack since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his call for more military support from allies following the attack.
“The world must help us protect us from Russian warplanes and the dozens of guided bombs that are taking Ukrainian lives every day,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post on Sunday.
“This terrorism can be stopped, but to stop it we must overcome our fear of taking strong and objectively necessary decisions. Only decisiveness can bring a just end to this war. It is decisiveness that is the most effective defense against terrorism,” he said.
Ukrainian authorities had earlier said the death toll from Russian attacks in the past 24 hours was nine, including a man and woman in their 60s in Odessa.
Zelensky said that over the past week “Russia has launched approximately 30 missiles of various types, more than 800 guided bombs and approximately 300 attack drones against Ukraine.”
