Five killed by Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine

In recent weeks, Moscow has begun using new powerful guided aerial bombs to devastating effect – Copyright POOL/AFP Steven Hirsch

Five people were killed Wednesday as Russia struck Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, local officials said.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia, a guided bomb attack killed two civilians, a 38-year-old woman and her father inside a car, the region’s governor said.

The region — large parts of which were occupied by Russian forces for months after they invaded in February 2022 — is under near-constant bombardment from Russian artillery.

On Wednesday morning, “two guided aerial bombs hit the centre of the town of Zolochiv,” around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on national television.

Another 13 people, including an 11-year-old child, were wounded, he said.

Further east in the Kharkiv region close to the city of Kupiansk, Russian shelling killed a 67-year-old woman in the village of Lelyukivka, Synegubov added.

And in the eastern Donetsk region, two people were killed and six injured in the small town of Girnyk, about 15 kilometres from the front line, said Vadym Filashkin, the head of the region’s military administration.

“The Russians attacked the town with Uragans this afternoon,” Filashkin wrote on Telegram, referring to rocket launchers.

Those killed were a 57-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man, he added.

Artillery and drone strikes in Nikopol, in the centre-east of the country, wounded four people, regional governor Sergiy Lyssak said.