Kharkiv barraged with rockets, 11 killed

Russian forces have blasted Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, with Grad multiple rocket launcher systems on Feb. 28, striking residential buildings.

Eleven people have been killed in the attacks, Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional government, said in a statement on Telegram.

Earlier, the Kharkiv City Council said that one woman died, while 15 soldiers and 16 civilians were hospitalized due to the shooting.

Synehubov called the attacks a “war crime."

Numerous videos appeared on social media, showing ripples of explosions among a cluster of residential buildings, as well as a multitude of photos showing destroyed buildings. One photo showed a rocket sitting in the middle of a wrecked apartment.

Kharkiv has been the site of ferocious fighting between Ukrainian forces and the invading Russian military.

On the morning of Feb. 27, Russian forces reportedly broke into the city center and engaged in street battles with the Ukrainian defenders. The Ukrainian military reported that it killed and captured numerous Russian regulars and saboteurs and destroyed vehicles. Later in the day, Synehubov said that Russian forces had been pushed out of the city.

Earlier on Feb. 26, the media reported heavy shelling on Kharkiv, where civilians were forced to continuously take shelter from the blasts. Five civilians and two service members died.

Kharkiv sits just 40 kilometers south of the Russian border.