Russia just hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv
Editor's Note: This is a developing story.
Russia attacked Kharkiv with drones on Oct. 22, damaging a kindergarten and killing one person and leaving nine injured, local authorities reported.
Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that drone strikes occurred in the city's Kholodnohirskyi district in the western part of the city in the morning. The person killed in an attack was a 40-year-old man.
Amil Omarov, the head of the Regional Prosecutor's Office, said that it was likely the attack included jet-powered Geran-2 Shahed-type drones.
"(The attack happened) in a densely populated area, and one of the buildings housed a private kindergarten. Fortunately, the children were promptly evacuated to a shelter," Omarov said.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that the children were sheltering at the time the drone hit and were not injured. Terekhov also said the kindergarten was directly hit, and at the time of the attack, teachers and 48 children were there, as reported by Suspilne Kharkiv.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported that a store, a coffee shop, an office building, and six cars were damaged. Three fires broke out, the largest of which covered an area of 500 square meters in a kindergarten building.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, saying, "There is no justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be."
"Clearly, Russia is growing more brazen. These strikes are Russia’s spit in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful resolution," Zelensky wrote on X.
Kharkiv has endured constant Russian attacks for over two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
This attack was preceded by a large-scale missile and drone attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine overnight on Oct. 22.
In Kyiv, two people were killed and 29 were injured, while four were killed in the Brovarsky district of Kyiv Oblast, regional authorities said. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, at least 15 civilians were injured, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
The strikes were widespread — President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 22 that Russia had also struck sites in Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Sumy oblasts.
Ukraine's biggest private energy firm, DTEK, said emergency power outages were in place in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and reported "significant damage" to energy infrastructure in Odesa Oblast.
The attacks come shortly after Ukraine launched Storm Shadow missiles in a mass strike on Russia, according to the General Staff. The attack allegedly struck Russia's Bryansk Chemical Plant, which produces key components for Russian missiles.
The latest mass attack comes amid an intensified Russian assault against Ukraine's energy facilities ahead of winter. Another deadly missile strike on Kyiv on Oct. 10 damaged a thermal power plant and triggered large-scale blackouts.
Abbey Fenbert
