Nine wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kharkiv: local officials

Ukrainian rescuers inspect damage to a residential building following a missile attack in Kharkiv early on October 3, 2024. (AFP/File)

KYIV: Russian strikes late Sunday on the northeast city of Kharkiv wounded nine people and cut power to part of the city, local officials and police said.
The latest barrage came as Ukrainian officials prepare for a new wave of bombardments they think will target the country’s energy network ahead of winter, as Moscow has done the last two years.
Russia has targeted the country’s power supplies to make the harsh winter harder to endure for the country’s civilian population in an effort to put more pressure on the authorities.
Police said in a statement on Telegram that Russia had launched strikes at around 10:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) injuring four women and five men.
Among the buildings hit were residential buildings, garages, service stations, houses and cars, the statement added.
Medical services were mobilized to help the injured, but the strikes cut power to parts of the city, said police.
Governor of the region and city mayor Oleg Synegubov confirmed in a Telegram post that part of the city was without power.
Neither he, nor the police, said how much of the city had been affected by the power cuts, nor which part of the power network had been hit.
Kharkiv, the main city of the northeast region of the same name, is a regular target of Russian strikes. It lies less than 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Russian border.
In May, Russia’s army tried to push forward in this border region, officially to create a buffer zone to limit Ukrainian attacks against military and industrial targets on Russian soil.
But the offensive has not succeeded in stopping Kyiv from targeting Russian territory on a daily basis.